DOCUMENT RESUME - ERICmethod as "a form of indirect teaching in which the teacher sets the problem...

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Golub, Jeff; And OthersFocus on Collaborative Learning. Classroom Practicesin Teaching English, 1988.National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana,Ill.

ISBN-0-8141-1753-888

162p.

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), 1111Kenyon Rd., Urbana, IL 61801 (Stock No. 17538-015,$7.50 member, $9.95 nonmember).Books (010) -- Guides - Classroom Use Guides (ForTeachers) (052)

MF01/PC07 Plus Postage.Class Activities; Class Organization; *CooperativeLearning; Elementary Secondary Education; *EnglishInstruction; Group Activities; *Grouping(Instructional Purposes); Instructional Innovation;*Language Arts; Playwriting; Revision (WrittenComposition); *Writing Instruction

IDENTIFIERS *Collaborative Learning; Oral Reports

ABSTRACT

Written by English teachers considered successful indirecting collaborative learning, this collection of essays focuseson the effective use of collaborative learning in the Englishlanguage arts classroom. The essays and their authors are, asfollows: (1) "None of Us Is as Smart as All of Us" (Dana Herreman);(2) "Collaborative Learning and Other Disasters" (Ricnard Whitworth);(3) "Interactive Learning in the Composition Classroom" (Caryl KleinSills); (4) "The Power of Collaboration" (Carol Gilles and MarcVanDover); (5) "Fine Cloth, Cut Carefully: Cooperative Learning inBritish Columbia" (Tom Morton); (6) "A Writing Teacher's Guide toProcessing Small-Group Work" (E. Kathleen Booher); (7) "CooperativeLearning in the Li:erature Classroom" (Rex Easley); (8) "GroupLibrary Research and Oral Reporting in Freshman Composition" (BarbaraSchoen); (9) "Talking about Books: Readers Need Readers" (AdeleFiderer); (10) "Group Presentations of Poetry" (Muriel Ridland); (11)"Getting Out of the Writing Vacuum" (Margaret B. Fleming); (12."Partners in the Writing Process" (Sharon E. Tsujimoto); (13)"Monitoring Individual Progress in Revision Groups" (Mary K.Simps(n-Esper); (14) "Building Effective Student Writing Groups"(Jeffrey S. Copeland and Earl D. Lomax); (15) "The Group Paper"(Corrine Alonso); (16) "Ensuring the Success of Peer Revision Groups"(Edgar H. Thompson); (17) "Revising Response Groups" (Marie Foley);(18) "Project Write Start: Elementary and Secondary Writing Partners"(Kirsten Barfod Levinsohn and John Kendall); (19) "A Lesson inRhetoric: Writing and Performing TV Commercials" (G. Douglas Meyers);(20) "The Sound of Music: A Harmonious Meeting of Minds" (VirginiaMcCormick); (21) "Six Sides to Learning" (S. Phyllis M. Taufan); (22)"Literature across the Curriculum: The "Twenty-One Balloons" in theSix+h-Grade Classroom" (Donald R. Bear and Deborah Lohman); and (23)"Soriptwriting in Small Groups" (Carole Cox). (MM)

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NCTE Committee on Classroom Practices in Teaching English

Jeff Golub, Chair, Shorecrest High School, Seattle, Wa ,:-, gt.,;)Beverly A. Busching, University of South Carolina, Coiut.,Carlota Cardenas de Dwyer, Clark High School, San Anti .1,, VexasJane M. Hornhurger, Brooklyn College, City UniNersity of New York,

New YorkJames C. Lalley, Jr., Loyola Academy, Wilmette, IllinoisPatricia Phelan, Unnersity City High School, San Diego, California

3

Focus onCollaborative Learning

Classroom Practices in Teaching English, 1988

Jeff Golub, Chair,and the Committee on Classroom Practices

National Council of "Feathers of English1111 Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801

NCTE Editorial Board Donald R Gallo, 1 homas Ness ku is. Ras niondRodrigues, Donuts% Strickland, f. Jane Chi istensen, x offuw, John Lan-singh Bennett, ex officio

Book Design: Tom Kos acs foi I GI: Design

Staff Editor: Tim Brant

NCTE Stock Number 17538

1988 bs the National Council of leachers of English .111 rights resersed.Printed in the United States of America

It is the polio of NCTE in its lout !rats and other publications u) pturide aforum for the open discussion of ideas cmcerning the content and tiletracl-ng of English and the language arts. Publicus accorded to ans particu-lar point of siesc does not impls endorsement bs the Exec Otis e Committee.the Boat d of Diret tots, of the membership at large. annotan e-mei.t, of poll( . ss itei e suc h endoi sement is c leads spec ified

Labial s of (,ong; ess Catalog ( aid N umbel 85-f)-14710

t)

.1111M,Mr

Contents

Introduction I

I Developing Collaborative Learning Skills 3

1. None of Us Is as Smart as All of Us 5Dana Herreman

2. Collaborative Learning and Other Disastets 13Richard Whitworth

3. Interactive Learning in the Composition Classroom 21Caryl Klein Sills

4 The Power of CollaborationCarol Gilles and Marc VanDmer

99

5. Fine Cloth, Cut Carefully:Cooperame Learning in British Columbi,1 35

Tom Morton

6. A Writing Teacher's Guide to ProcessingSmall-Group Woi k 43

E. Kathleen Booher

II Collaborative Learning and Literature Study 47

7. Cooperative Learning in the Literature Classroom 49Rex Easley

8. Group Library Researc h and Oral Reportingin Freshman Composition 55

Barba:-a Sc hoen

9. Talking about Books Readers Need !trade's 59Adele iderer

67Iii. Group Presentations of PoeticMuriel Ridland

U

vi Contents

III Collaboration in Writing, Revising, and Editing 75

11. Getting Out of the Writing Vacuum 77Margaret B. Fleming

12. Partners in the Writing ProcessSharon E. Tsujimoto

13. Monitoring Individual Progress in Revision GroupsMary K. Simpson-Esper

14. Building Effective Student Writing GroupsJeffrey S. Copeland and Earl D. Lomax

15. The Group PaperCorrine Along;

16. Ensuring the Success of Peer Revision GroupsEdgar H. Thompson

17. Revising Re nonce GroupsMarie F.

18. Project Write Start:Elementary and Secondary Writing Partners

Kirsten Barfod Ley msohn and John Kendall

85

93

99

105

109

117

123

IV Additional Collaborative Learning Activities 131

19 A Lesson in Rhetoric:Writing and Performing TV Commercials 133

G. Douglas Meyers

20. The Sound of Music. A Hai momous Meeting of Minds 139Virginia McCormick

21. Six Sides to Leal ning 147S. Phyllis M. Tauten, SNJM

22. Literature across the Curriculum:The Twent)-One Balloons in the Sixth-Gi ade Classroom 151

Donald R. Bear and Deborah Lohman

23. Scriptwriting in Small Groups 159Carole Cox

Contributor, 165

Introduction

Every lesson plan, classroom activity, and instructional method re-flects certain assumptions about what's worth knowing, how studentslearn, and what the function of the teacher is. Giv ing a lecture onthe importance and structure of the topic sentence, for instance, im-plies that this is information worth knowing, that students learn bestby absorbing facts and other material, and that the teacher's role isthat of dispenser of information An interest in collaborative learn-ing has grown because of some assumptions that are changing inone or more of these areas of English instruction. Teachers are finding that an instructional approach emphasizing "peer tutoring andsimilar modes such as peer criticism and classroom group work"(Bruffee 1984, p. 637) is often an effective way to learn the materialat hand and to gain valuable insights. In a comprehensive and artic-ulate essay about cooperative learning. Bruffee characterized themethod as "a form of indirect teaching in which the teacher sets theproblem and organizes snider ts to work it out collaborativ ely" (p.637).

Collaborative learning fic.s as its main feature a structure thatallows for student talk students are //PP° te'd to talk with each otheras they work togther on various classroom projects and activities,and it is in this talking that much of the lean ning occurs James Br it-ton, for instance, has said that "the relationship of talk to w riling !scentral to the writing process":

Talk is more expressive the speaker is not obliged to keep him-self in the background as he may be in writing, talk relies on animmediate link with listeners, usually a group or a whole class.the rapid exchanges of cons ersauon alloys many things to go onat onceexloration. clanfic anon, shined intei pretauon, insightinto differences of opinion, illustration and anecdote, explana-non by gesture. expression of doubt, and if something rs 1101clear you can go on until it is (Britton et at 1975. p 29)

Collaborative learning activities, then, <thou students to !darn by"talking it out," assimilating their ideas and information through in-teraction with others It also changes the role or :unction of the

2 Introduction

teacher from "information giser" to "guide on the side," one who isavailable to respond to the students' emerging insights.

But it is not enough simply to decide that collabotanse learning isindeed an appropriate and effectise method of instruction, onemust also train students to deselop specific collaboraus e learningskills to ensure that they can work productisely and harmoniously inpairs and in small groups. Consequently, we hake denoted the firstsection of this book to articles that might help with this problem.These articles identify Valuable guidelines to follow in des elopingstudents' group skills.

The second section pros ides descriptions Uf cooperatise learningactisities dealing with the study of literature. In the thud section, theauthors show how a cooperate e approach may be used to help stu-dents compose, resise, and edit their writing. Finally, we offer seser-al unusual cooperative learning actisities that defy simple categoriza-tion. The authors describe treatise collaboratise projects thatdeselop students' language and communication skills m a sariety ofways.

The idea of allowing students to work coopei aux ely on a lesson orclassroom project is a most worthwhile approach to English instruc-tion. Establishing the conditions for the successful use of this in-structional strategyand proyiding examples of such acthinesisthe focus of this volume.

The members of the Classroom Practices committee hope thatthis volume will prose to be of value to you and your work in thelassroom. I thank those members hit the considerable time and ef-

fort they spent reading and rex less ing manuscriptsPat Phelan.Carlota Cardenas de Ds' el-. Beyer!) Busching. Jane llornburger.and jay Lalley

Jeff Golub. (lairCommittee on Classroom PractK es in leaching English

References

Britton. J N T But gess, N Mat tin. .1 M(1,cod. and 11 Rotten 1975. //uDevelopment of Writing Abilities ( 11-18) 1.olulm) Macmillan Ldta anon1.td

Bi A r;rvi Coriaboi ame Leal lung and (in Comc ',awn' of Man-kind." College English ,16 637

I DevelopingCollaborativeLearning Skills

1 None of Us Is as Smartas All of Us

Dana HerrernanNewark High SchoolNewark, Ohio

Mention the group proc.:ss to rue and I get positnely rabid with ex-citement. Remark that you're tired of using groups in class becauseits an overused technique and I'm likely to become Violent. If you'remy supervisor and you tell me you'll c rnr back later when I'mteaching, Ill tell you tliat I'm teaching some of the most valuablelessons my students will ever learnin groups.

It's not only because I was both a speech and communkationsmajor and an English major in college that I'm ar enthusiasticcheerleader for the group process; its also because I have seengroups work in my classroom ,)s, nd over again. Each time Iwatch my students struggle through the pi ocess, each time I talkabout groups to my colleagues, each time I participate in a problem-soling, discussion, or training group, I renew my commitment toboth utilizing and teaching the group process. As teachers, weshould do more than use groups only as an occasional break fromstandard operating procedure; we have a responsibility to teach thegroup process. It is mole than a mere teaching technique for a slowclay: the group process is the life process.

We all have the opportunity to become imoked in numerousgroups in our lifetimes. We begin in an informal neighborhoodgroup of kids deciding who's "it," and IN e progress through scoutingand fraternities or sow' ines into prof essional organizations andboards of directors. There is also, of course, in ement in the mostimmediate and perhaps essential small groupthe family. Bee mseour go%ernment is not a dictatorship, eery decision made in our so-ciety that is not a personal decision is made by d group. Questionsare discussed, debated, and decided upon by groups of people, notby a tyrant. We believe in and endorse this system day after day.Your salary was determined by a group piocess called negotiation.

5

6 Del,elopmg Collaborative Lear rung Skills

The textbook you use o teach literature was chosen by a selectioncommittee. 1 he number of hours your students spend in schooleach day was decided on by a group of legislators. So, in teachingour students how to work effectiY ely in a group setting, we areteaching them fat more than that day's material; we are teachingthem about democracy and about life, ind Also about how to lutemore successfully.

The group process must be Might, howeyet. Just because indiyid-uals can be configured into a jicle does not mean that they will au-tomatically become good communicators. In the past ten yeats As ehate discoYered that just because we hake ears, we tot our students)do not necessarily know how to listen welt. Listening is a teachableskill, and so is communicating in a group. Students won't learn goodgroup skills without specific, structured instruction and training.

The Group Process and the Writing Process

Although I use groups and teach group communication in a Nal tet)of settings, I hake mole recently focused on the group process as anintegral part of the writing process. After going through my ownwriting project experience, I hale sought ways to integrate groupc,;minunication into all fie steps of the writing process, and into theprocess as a whole. The pi ew ritirg phase, fore xample, offers manyexcellent possibilities. One ft equent applicatum is using a group offoul to seen students to generate ideas in a brainstorming session.Another application of prewri'-rig is in discussionof a story orpoem, a teleYision program, something that happened at school, or astadent issue or problem. Prewriting groups are also useful as stu-dents complete other press thing actiYities, such as cataloging, web-13:ngind listing. Sharing their work with others and listening to ciewideas expand the students' idea base arc! giye them mote possibilitiesto begin drafting.

1 imagine that Waiting teachers rat el) think of group actry ides asuseful in the di along phase of the wilting process, but it is possible.One It ay I've u.,ecl (hafting successfully in a group setting is throughthe discussion test. e most often used this kind of test over a no elthat the students have read outside of class. Again, I organizegroups of iota to seen (the optimum numbet for a small group).

be Students discuss an essay pe question together and then 'hafta espouse. ENer,one in the group is responsible fot participating in

None of Us Is as Smart as All of Us

both the discussion and the formulation ,if the answer , and consen-sus (total agreement) must be reached before the group co- put any-riling in writing. Other opportunities for group drafting nclude aletter to a guest speaker or an administrator and answering thestudy questions front the book after reading a piece of literature.The key to success in this stage is to require all students to makecontributions to the group's final product.

1.* kn, coo, offers rich opportunities for successful group cora-m:w.cati _1. Since it is at this time that students are encouraged to"tinker' a little or a lot with their writing, exchanging di .ifts or read-ing them out loud to a group can spark good discussions of alternatives for the writers. Revision -cups are often most effective asproblem solving groups. The group is given a specific amount oftime to complete a specific task or solve a specific problem. It is ill-advised to put student writers in a group with the nebulous task ofrevising their papers. A much more achievable goal is to ask groupmembers to focal on a particular aspect of their papers; for in-stance, beginnings and endings, or adequate paragraph structure.Group members then read and evaluate each paper in terms of thatone aspect. The members should be r quired to find both good ele-ments and elements that still need revision in all of the papers theyare considering.

Editing student compositions is too often IN hat we teachers endup doing rather than training our students to do it themselves. Onceagain, using groups can be very effective. There at e at least twoways to set up group editing. As Nvith revision groups, assigning aspecific task in a specific time period works very well. Instructionssuch as "You have fifteen minutes to read the papers in your groupand find the spelling errors they may contain" tell students exactlywhat you expect of them. These instructions also motivate the stu-dems to get startednot to spend part of the class period discussinglast Friday's game. Another opinion is to create %sot k groups, groupsthat come together to work together. These groups have one specificediting task each time they meet. In a single classroom there couldbe one group focusing on editing fot punctuation errors, allot hetcot reefing grammar and usage, and another editing for ca, ttaliza-Lion. On editing day, compositions are cnculated front poop togroup and then tetrutned to the author with each group's sug-gestions.

The publishing phase of the writing l.totess is sometimes a diffi-cult one foi teachers simply because the options fot publishing ate

8 Developing Collaborative Learning Skills

often rather limited. I define publishing as anything that happens to1 student's writing aft, r the student has completed all prev ioussteps. Under this definition, simply reading the finished writtenproducts to each oth -r in a group setting is a form of publishing. Ifstudents are mat... vare of the steps in the writing process, usinggroup brainstorming or problem-solving sessions to discover new orpreviously unconsidered methods of publishing then v ork will be alogical conclusion to a writing assignment. It might also provide theteacher with new ideas for publish; .udent work. 'How car. wecreate new audiences for our writn or "In what ways can wemake our writing more visible to more people?" are questions thatactively involve students in their ow n publishing. Another publishingoption used frequently in classrooms is to have student groups con-struct their own literary magazines or anthologies that feature stu-dent work.

The group process, whether in problem-solving, discussion, train-ing, or work groups, can be extreme:y effective in teaching the indi-vidual steps of the writing process. It can also be utilized creativelyfor one major assignment that encompasses every step of the writingprocess. The past few years I have used a writing assignment in myAmerican literature classes called "The People Magazine Project,"which is done completely in the group setting. In this -oject stu-dents are organized into groups of four to seven, with the optimumnumber being five, their goal is to create a magazine that spans theperiod 1840-1890 and is modeled after People. The assignment hascertain guidelines, including the number of literary and historicalpersons to be included, illustrations, and so on. The groups are re-sponsible for prewriting and planning the entire magazine, draftingthe articles and advertisements, making any necessary revisions,doing the final editing, and ultimately publishing the magazine. Myfunction is to act as advisor and occasionally motivator or arbiter tomake sure that the work is being accomplished and that no onegroup member is being overburdened. The students work in groupsfor five class periods and outside of class as much as they deem nec-essary. One person is designated as chairperson to guide the group,settle disputes, and communicate with me. Although there is oftenmuch protesting that the group will nevei finish, never get the re-quired number of articles, never find good illustrations, never getthe magazine put together, and that the assignment is altogether un-reasonable, the finished products have been excellenttherebyproving the power and creativity inherent in groups.

None of Us Is as Smart as All of Us 9

Group Process Skills

The group comma:ncation proce.,s truly is a ,vondtrful and effectivecomplement to the wilting process, but as ientioned earlier. just be-cause students an be put in a cirde doesn't mean they can functionas accomplished group communicators. Group skills, which in manyways are simply good communication skills, must be taught, andthey must be modeled. Students should be taught the different typesand functions of groups: discussion, problem sole ing, work, andtraining. Then, v% hen they cluster together as a problem solving orwork group, their purpose is much clearer to them.

Students also need to learn to be effective in the various roles thatemerge in group communication. Whether or not a leader is as-signed, one still tend to appear in every group setting. Every studentshould know the responsibilities a leader has, not only because he o;she might be the leader tomorrow but also to function as a goodgroup member, assisting the leader with the smooth operation of thegroup. Isolates or clowns can impede progress toward a goal, but ifstudents are taught that these roles are likely to come out in a group,and if they have some strategies to deal with other students takingon these roles, they w ill be much less frustrated and will be morelikely to succeed. A good activity for teaching roles is to assign eachstudent a role in a particular group which the studs_rit does not re-veal. After the group interaction, ask students to analyie the effec-tiveness of the communication, identify which roles were played, anddiscuss how those roles helped or hindered the group. If the stu-dents are able to devise strategies, to deal with talkative or non-task-oriented group members, they v.ill be more able to deal with thesetypes every time they' are in a group.

Students also need to practice good group behaviors, such as lis-tening, responding, agreeing, disagreeing, clarifying, and makingprocedural statements. I teach these skills to students in two ways. Isit down with the group and model good listening or good clarifyingstatements and then encourage them to practice those skills. Or I in-terrupt. My voice, fortunately. is louder than Inc or six groups com-bined, if I want it to be, so i just raise it to the necessary level andtell students to stop lot a moment and allow the pet son to the lightof the leader or the one act oss from the leak' to summanie whathas been said so far and to make a statement of w hat the groupshould do next. A different interruption might requhe students tostop discussing and individually write down what they think they just

10 Developing Collaboualve Learning Skills

heard said in the group. tv hen comparing perceptions, group mem-bers will be aLle to determine whether they y, ere activ ely listeningand participat;ng Jr just daydreaming. I find a combination of mod-eling good behavior and interrupting group procedures to be thebest way to help students to learn and to begin to incorporate thosenew skills into the group process.

Evaluation

Evaluating work done in groups can be tricky. It is difficult to penal-ize all group members because one person didn't do his or her shareof the work and consequently the final product is less than expectedor required. In using group communication with the writing pro-cess, I grade simply on a pass/fail basis (which is how I grade all writ-ing) and give credit for good participation. If the writing has been amajor assignment, I might give credit for the writing and also give agroup-participation grade to each student. An important aspect ofevaluation is having the students evaluate their own work after thegroup interaction is ove 'Vhen a group has worked together on aproject that takes one class period or more, I have students evaluatetree quality of their own participation and that of others in thegroup. In exchange for confidentiality, students can be very honestabout their work and their classmates' work. If the project is to re-ceive a letter grade, I ask students to estimate what grade they them-selves should receive, as well as what grade the group should re-ceive. Their estimations are either very close to my own evaluationor the students are nardet on themselves than I would be. The stu-dent evaluations are very helpful to me if any single person's gradeneeds to be adjusted upward from the group's grade or (infre-quently) downward. Do some kids take adv .stage of the harderworkers and essentially ride their coattails to a better grade thanthey might deserve? Probably. But we, as teachers, need to be philo-sophical about this and realize that such people exist in groups inthe adult world, too, and that the experience of learning the groupprocess is still valuable enough to keep teaching it. Those over-achievers who worked so hard on the group project will contint.ui tobe hard workers in their professional organizations or on theirboards in the firtare. By learning the realities of group dy namics asyoungsters, they will be bettet equipped to handle such hangers-onand will face fewer frustrations as adults.

16

None of Us Is as Smart as All of Us 11

If you have el, er sat through a local board of education meetingor a meeting of the executive board of almost any organization, youare probably painfully aware of the fact that good group commu-nication skills are often lacking in "the real world Simply gettingolder doesn't endow any of us with effective communication skills.Teaching group communication to our students now will truly helpthem function in a democratic society in the future. The group pro-cess, whether applied to writing, to the teaching of literature, of asan important skill in itself, expands our personal knowledge and ourown limited experiences. That fact alone should transform the skep-tic to the kind of cheerleader I am for the .,roup process. After all, itreally is true that none of us is as smart as all of us.

2 Collaborative Learning andOther Disasters

Richard WhitworthBall State University

I was brought up in a traditional school setting, in which the roles ofthe teacher and students were clearly defined. The teacher bawledinto our ears for fifty minutes, perhaps on the fox-hunting outfits inSilas .'Varner, and we took notes Or the teacher demanded a -185word essayno fewer words on "roadside beauty,- and we stu-dents obliged.

Later, when I began to teach, I did exactly the same thing. It was"teach as I was taught": the lessons were ground out, the desks wereevenly spaced, a feet -on- the -floor atmosphere was maintained at alltimes.

During those early years of teaching, I was disturbed by theglazed eyes of my seYenth graders, the bored and disdainful curveof their mouths, and their fidgeting, oYeractixe feet. I knew some-thing was wrong, but I decided the fault must he with these inner-city kids, not with me or my lessons.

About this time, I came upon the gospel of James Moffett(1968b) I was appalled. The man advocated a student-centered lan-guage arts curriculum, one in which students generated the ideas tobe used in the classroom, one in which students taught each otherthrough cross-teaching techniques, one in which the emphasis wason student cooperation and collaboration.

The man as obviot sly a kook. Wouldn't my kids hoot and takeadvantage of the ensuing Amos? Wouldn't they teal each other upmuch worse than in their daily battles on th playground and in thehalls? Terms like (oope/atioh and collaboration weren't part of theirvocabulary. And as for then teaching each other, wouldn't it be acase of the blind leading the blmd? They didn't know a comma froma semiquaver.

I dismissed Moffett's ideas as pi epostcr,,..' that is, until things atschool became hither despciate. I finally decided to try the "Moffett

13

14 Developing Col lain» ain't, Learning Skills

was" because I didn't hale anything to lose. and at least I thoughtEd have the grim satisfaction of pros tug the man wrong.

Starting Out

The sesenth grader s were attempting t' get through AlexanderKey's science-fiction nose! The Forgotten Dow. Instead of doing myusual teacher monologue (euphemistically called "a class discus-sion"), I borrowed some actisities insolsing group learning and col-laboration from Moffett's handbook on language amities 11968,0and added others from various language arts experts.

I gale each small group a d iled task assignment related to TheForgotten Door: choosing a scen ,om the nosel and resamping it asa Readers Theatre offering; creating mos ie ads ertisements of "com-ing attraction" trailers, insolsing highlightsas if the no el had beenfilmed; scripting the trial scene near the end of the nosel, creating atabletop model of the utopian world from which the hero comes, re-porting 'In mind reading (the unusual talent of the main character),or improvising "what if" situations that would change the story'soutcome, the theme, and the nature of the characters.

When the youngsters learned the new order of the daycollab-oratise learning. working in groups of Erse or six on different proj-ectsthey were sery suspicious. Howes er, the change of routine didmake them more alert and wary, as if perhaps some nasty trick wereabout to be played upon them. But at least the glazed looks weregone.

Getting into It

The first few days were rough on all of us.Some youngsters were upset by the bedlam and noise, other s rev-

eled in it, just messing about. Some refused to work with their class-mates, others gas e up because they wanted hard-and-fast answer srather than tentative explorations. There existed mistrust not onlybetween the facial factions within the room but between the boysand girls Often ridicule, "jisin'," teasing, and tension would buildwithin a group and boil over in...) confrontation.

I learned quickly that collaborative learning does not magicallyhappen. You has e to set up conditions carefully, and you has e toallow time for both youngsters and teacher to make mistakes. Bothhave to adjust to a new series of demands put upon them, par tic u-

1 EJ

Collabe,rative Learning and Other Disa,sters l5

lady the learning of cognaiye and social skills that mu, &wine in ahighly complex fashion.

Although I was tempted to abandon collaborative learning al-together, I didn't want to lose face in front of the youngsters and ad-mit that I didn't know what I was doing So I stuck it out. And I'mglad that I did, for as I floundered my way through, t tucked in thehack of my mind some basic principles that esertually helped memake collaborative learning .ork effectixely.

My worst assumption: the teacher's Jot, :o set up detailed task sfor the students and then stand back while the _:adents complete theassigned tasks on then own, with all students, of course, being pro-ductively engaged during each day's fifty-minute period.

I didn't realize that in collaborative learning situations the teacheris constantly on the MONe: monitoring the group's progress, offeringadvice if the yo":_gsters seem confused or stuck, suggesting alter-natives if student plans go awry, demonstrating how to behaye as acontributing member of the group, and taking care of behavioralproblems. In ether words, the teacher assumes a Yen, acti:e role incollaborative learning and, oftentimes, an exhausting one.

I also mistakenly assumed that the students would respond Ix% or-ably to their assigned tasks: after all, the tasks had been recom-mended in glowing terms by Moffett and other high-powered namesin language arts. The actiYities should has e struck an enthusiasticchord in each student's breast.

Instead, members of the class were incensed, and they grumbledabout having to do all of those "dumb assignments They de-manded to know what their immediate po,off would be by doingthat junk."

After consulting with some experienced elementary teachersabout group work. I basin% roamped my strategies.

Starting Over

During the first session, which lasted no more than fifteen of twentYminutes rather than the entire fifty-minute class session, we ex-plored the purpose of each group project If it didn't make sells( ,0the youngsters, the project was modified to suit the group's ideas. Itbecame then project, not mine, thus becoming a teal collahoi atamong students and between the students and the teacher

I also let it be known that we would perform or demonstrate theprojectsif they were good enough before an eighth-grade class or


perhaps even at a school assembly or maybe a PTA meeting. Nowthe youngsters had a real audience to consider, not just a hodge-podge or tasks to take up class time and to please the teacher.

During the second short session, 1 introduced the concept ofbrainstorming and set up basic rules for the youngsters to follow. (1)generate as many ideas off the top of your head as possiblethe wil-der the better, (2) avoid eYaluating or justifying any of the ideasoffered, and refrain from telling others that their ideas are "real stu-pid"; and (3) record every idea presented, even if some are re-petitious.

Once each group had chosen a recorder, the group brainstormedpossible ways of approaching their project.

During the next several short sessions never more than ten totwenty minutes at a time each group

1. Chose its leader.2. Fashioned an agenda )f what was to be accomplished from the

records kept during the brainstorming session.3. Determined completion dates for the Narious components of

the project.

1. Delegated responsibilities for each member of the group.5. Determined how the project and each group member were to

be evaluated.

These sessvms didn't always go smoothly. the Youngsters mademistakes as they learned to accept each other's ideas and to work to-gether cooperatively and productively.

1 made mistakes, too. I often tried to push the students too hardbefore they really had learned how to cooperate, assume responsibil-ity, and work as a team.

My major roles were to keep each group on task, make sure thattheir ideas worked for them, and ensure that the final payoff wouldbe a successful project and a good learning experience The hardestpart was being axailable when really needed but not doing tasks thatthe students could do for themselves.

Somehow of other, we completed the projects and exhibited:pei-formed them before the highly critical eighth-grade class, with a few,parents and the school principal also in attendance. My class seemeuvery pleascd with the results, especially that of "shining" before theirsuperior s. eighth graders. They immediately wanted to knowwhen they could do collaboi atiy projects again It was as "neat-ostuff."

Collaborative Learning and Other Dzsactem 17

To use the old cliche, nothing breeds success like succes, Boththe youngsters and I were in ., state of euphoria. so we confidentlylaunched into a St riting workshop, again borrowing ideas fromJames Moffett. Why tamper with success%

The Workshop Experience

In the workshop approach to writing, the student scribbles downwhatever comes to mind for ten or fifteen minutes each day for aweek or so. The scribbles might consist of a jumble of memories,current gripes, or hopes for the future. The student pays no atten-tion to organization, development, or mechanics while spilling ontopaper whatever comes to mind. These raw data are filed each day mthe student's writing folder, which becomes, in essence, . "languagebank" for possible future themes or projects. One distinct advantageof this approach is that 'natural topics" (Nloffett's term) emergefrom the students' interest, experience, and perspective (as opposedto teacher-generated topics being imposed on them).

When enough data are collected in the writing folders, the stu-dents gather in informal groups of four or five. Each group combsthe individual member's folder for interesting ideas that have poten-tial for further development. Through a series of short group meet-ings, each student selects one idea from his or her folder and devel-ops that germ idea into a theme. The group serves as an audience aswell as a counseling service. The li, titer receives immediate feedbackfrom the group on points that aren't clear or parts that need to bereorganized or further developed.

Within each workshop group, it is advantageous to place severalyoungsters who have editorial skills and who ,..n help with mechan-ical problems as questions arise. Throughout the workshop's opera-tions, the emphasis is on student cooperation and "cross- teachingthat is. students helping and teaching each other.

I hate to admit this, but I found that often the youngsteis within agroup did a better job of explaining how to coke a particular prob-lem than I could have They seemed to understand each other's lin-go better and provide lucre empathy.

During these sessions, I noticed that the groups worked moreproductively and with less friction than during Our initial venturewith The Forgollen Dow 1 could see that most of the students hadmade at least some progress in learning how to pool idea., and howu. cooperate and help rather than lie destrth ON e and competitive.

e

:.

18 Developing Co [lobo-wive Learning Ski 16

They listened somewhat better. were a bit more courteous towardeach other, and generated some enthusiasm about then schoolworkOn rare occasions, they were tolerant of and generous toward eachother.

We read some of the finished papers aloud, duplicated others,and displayed some on the bulletin board. I wa., impressed with thequality of the papers, most of which were more . id than papersgenerated from topics I had assigned. The topics ranged from achocolate puddir.g fight at camp to the shooting of rats to a haunt-ing exposition on how to sursise when the gas heat turned off be-cause of nonpayment of utility bills.

It was at this point that I made my next mistake. I fell in lose withcollaborane learning as a means of student learni g. Because theclass had had success in using it twice. I sass group collaboration asthe ultimate solution to all of my teaching problems.

Groups and the Limits of Grouping

We did special needs grouping for those who needed help with partic-ular such as dictionary skills, following directions, and findingthe main ideas in paragraphs. We did tutorial groupings, in whichyoungsters with expertise served as athisors on mechanical skillswhile others lent their expertise on fashion, sports, stamps andcoins, soap operas, and so on. We did intelest groupings, in whichsome youngsters explored their hubbies or entertainment prefer-ences while others put on a one-act melodrama, Sorry, WrongNumber

Furthermore, we did invitational groupings, with the youngstersuniting members of ()ther groups to join their group for drill g nnesin language skills and for mterdisciplinary science/language artsprojects. We did wild groupings, in which the students learned par-liamentary pi ocedure and came up with language arts games andactit ides for our Friday afternoon club. And we did re,earch group-ings for special repot ts and for conducting treasure hunts amongthe school library's reference materials

was so caught up in ms lose affair with grouping and collabora-tion that I didn't catch faint signals that the kids wetc beginning totime of so much group work Floweser, with louder rumbles of dis-content, it dawned on me that pet haps I was merdomg the «Ma's-man\ e learning bit.

Collaborative Learning and Other Disasters 19

I remember George, a small but feisty seventh grader He shookhis head in disgust and groused, "This is the groupingest class I wasever in."

Since that time, I've learned that although collaborative learningis a very effective means of instruction, I must use It sparingly, alter-nating it with w hole-class actiyities. the buddy 3Nstem, and indlyidualactivities.

I have come to know what the ancient Greeks mean .j "the gold-en mean" they wisely belieYed in a balanced life, ore not given overto any excesses. The same may be said of educational practices.

Although some educational gurus try to sell the IA a) in their booksand lectures, experienced teachers know that a mix, a variety of prac-tices, is a sounder policy. The aphorism "Different strokes for dif-ferent folks" certainly holds true here.

Some activities lend themselY es well to collaboratiy e learning;others call for an individual or whole-class approach. ;Moreover,some people work best in groups; others prefer to go it alone. Oyerthe years, these two basic principles have guided my planning of lan-guage arts work, whether for fifth graders, junior/senior highschoolers, college undergrads/grads, or doctoral students.

As a rule of thumb today, 1 usually begin with w hole-class work-the reading of a short story, for instance. We'll break into groups,sometimes having each group explore an assigned issue or valuewithin the story; at other times, the groups ferret out for themsel esthe issues presented or the theme of the story, using their on expe-riences and insights as resources. Then we may do inch% idual proj-ects, such as writing assignments or journal reaction papers. Andlater we may conclude by forming panels or roundtables and try toreach a consensus on pal ticular issues, or do some Creative dramaticsand videotape key scenes, or create analysis grids whereby com-parisons and contrasts are made between the current story and thosepreviously read.

For the teacher who has never tried collabolatiYe learning butwho might be tempted, I heartily recommend Class?(Rim Collaboration,

Phillida Salmon and Hihry Claire (1984). Obsery mg four class-room teachers who used different collaboratiye learning techniquesand activities, Salmon and Claire report on the pros and cons of col-laboratiy e learning .nid gise detailed examples of aim ines that wsr!y:ell. I can only wish that I had had such a book when I started. SuchadY ice would have saved me many a headache and disaster.

20

References

Developing Collaborative Learning Skills

Key, A. 1986. The Forgotten Door. New York: Scholastic IncMoffett, J. 1968a. A Student-Centered Language Arts Clam olt" Glades K -13

A Handbook for Teachers Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co1968b. Teaching the Universe of Discourse. Boston. Houghton Mifflin

Co.Salmon, P., and H Claire 1984. Classroom Collaboration. London Routledge

& Megan Paul

2U

3 Interactive Learning in theComposition Classroom

Caryl Klein SillsMonmouth CollegeWest Long Branch, New Jersey

The ,',ord cooperation means to act jointly, to concur, in other words,the individuals involved come to some kind of agreement. However,it is probable that a certain amount of dissension will have precededconsen,us. It is within the tension of this initial opposition thatlearning takes place; cooperative learning is thus a deliberate at-tempt to take advantage of differing perspectives through the interaction of individuals and their ideas in a reciprocal or alternating ac-tion.

We might liken this view of interactive learning to a game of catchin which a ball is tossed randomly from individual to individual untilthe game, by mutual consent, is over. In interactive learning, an ideais tossed from individual to individual. Analogies aside, however ;any discussion of group learning must first identify the advantage ofthis mode of learning compared with all other modes of learning.For example, in a 1983 study, Johnson and Johnson concluded that"working collaboratively with classmates, compared with learning in-dividualistically or competitively, increases the positiveness of stu-dents' mood states, thereby increasing their motivation to achieve"(cited in Johnson and Johnson 1986, p. 12).

In this view, collaborative learning is dependent on the positive in-terdependence of group members, which contributes to the achieve-ment of a common goal. Specifically, "students put into groups areonly students grouped and are not collaborators, unless a task thatdemands consensual learning unifies the group activity" (Wiener1986, p. 55). Therefore, teachers must foster positive attitudes ingroup members that will result in interactive and productive grouplearning.

22 Developing Collaboyaltve Learning Skills

Fostering Positive Interaction in Peer Response Groups

Before students can hold positive attitudes toward peer workshopsin which group members' compositions are critiqued, teacher s them-selves must be convinced that peer-group evaluation of writing as-signments will help students improve as writers; that is, that cooper-ative g, o. learning will translate into better writing by th 2 majorityof the group's members. The most eloquent arguments for peerwriting workshops come from Kenneth Bruffee and Peter Elbow.

According to Bruffee (1980),

The basic Idea of collaborative learning is that we gain certainkinds of knowledge best through a process of communicationwith our peers. What we leara best in this way is knowledge in-volving judgment. We can sit by ourselves and learn irregularFrench verbs, benzine rings, the parts of an internal combustionengine, or the rhetorical dev.,,,s which are useful in eloquent oreffective prose. But when we want to know how to use t dis-crete knowledgeto speak French, to combine organic t,om-pounds, to find out why an engine won't start and then to fix It,or actually to write eloquent prosewe have to learn quite dif-ferently... .

The best way to learn to make judgments is to practice mak-ing them in collaboration with other peopl: ,%ho are at about thesame stage of development as we are (n 103)

Elbow (1973) conceives of a teacherless writing experience ingroups of seven to twelve people in which "everyone reads everyoneelse's writing. Everyone tries to give each writer a sense of how hiswords were experienced" ,'p. 77). Elbow further explains that it isoften necessity for the wilier to see his or her words and thoughts'refracted" through a reader's consciousness in order to use lan-

guage that more (Rath '.ommunicates he intended meaning: "Toimprove your writing y, don't need advice about vv hat changes tomake, you don't need theories of w hat is good and had writing. Youneed movies of people's minds while they read your words" (p. 77).

Thus, according to Elbow, she advantage to writers of having realreaders is to provide immediate feedback. Adapting Elbow's teach-erless writing groups in a tr ditional composition class means that al-though the teacher remains in the background while the groups op-erate, he or she, according to Wiener, is "neither inactive nornondirectiv e." In fact, to ensure productive collaboration the teacher"must plan and organize the session so th. t students know that theend is not simply to work in groups but to work in groups in an ef-fort to reach consensus for an important task" (1986, p. 61). In a

2 "1

Interactive Learning in the Composnion Classroom 23

composition class, this task is for students to respond to each other'swriting and to revise and improve their own writing.

It is not enough, however, for the teacher alone to be enthusiasticabout writing workshops. Once teachers become convinced that peerwriting workshops are an effective tool for improving student writ-ing, they must develop in their students the positive attitudes requi-site to productive group learning. Although students should be leftpretty much on their own to read and respond to each other's writ-ing, the following ways to structure peer groups will promotepositive interaction between group members to ensure them a pro-ductive learning experience.

Structures for Peer Writing Workshops

In one model for peer-group re-ponse, the same task is assigned toeach group: read and respond to each group member's writing.Then each group's findings, as well as the process that led them totheir conclusions, are shared in a whole-class "wrap -up." Alter-natively, each group can be assigned one part of a task. For exam-ple, different groups can critically evaluate the content, form, lan-guage, and sentence structure of a sample student essay and thenreport their findings for synthesis by the whole class (which thenfunctions as a larger cooperative learning group). This sharing of in-formation and experience by individual nips with the class as awhole is an important complement to small-group cooperative learn-ing.

Written evaluation of _ ch individual's group experience shouldbe handed in for teacher comment but not for grading. Wheneverpossible, the instrument for this evaluation should 1-e designed bythe class as a whole after the task has been defined by the teacher.Specific points should be addressed, such at 'What questions has thewriter raised but not answei ed.?" and "What is the focus of the essay,and is it consistent throughout Questions specific to a particularwriting assignment might include "How does the Iv riter concede orrefute opposing arguments ?" or "Does the write] provide sufficientexplanations to connect the sequenced steps or stages of the processanalysis?" General comments on the group experience and possiblefollow-through should also be solicited. For example, students mightconsider what revisions the:. will make after the group discussion,what their main contribution was to the critical discussion of others'writing, or how the workshop was either helpful or disappointing.

Developing Collaborative Learning Skills

Students will often require instruction in interpersonal and small-group skills before they can successfully cooperate in peer responsegroups. The collaborative skills students need to use include lead-ership, communication, trust building, and conflict managementskills (Johnson and Johnson 1986). During the wrap-up discussion atthe end of each workshop session, the teacher can reinforce stu-dents' understanding of how to effectively use these skills by focus-ing on successful strategies reported by another group. For example,if a student feels his or her group is making only superficial com-ments, such as "That's real good" or "I like your introduction,"members of other groups can be asked to suggest how they success-fully solicited more useful feedback. In addition, the teacher candemonstrate how a writer can probe such surface responses withspecific questions, such as "What is the least interesting part of myessay? What is lacking?" or "What expectations does my introductionset up for the reader? How can I fulfill them?"

A final way to ensure productive learning groups is to define re-sponsibilities clearly. Both the writing assignment and the directionsfor group cooperation should be written out. In addition, leadershipcan be rotated at each workshop session, or group members canshare authority to arrive at consensual decisions about procedures.

The most important point about peer-response writin, groups isthat in order to be motivated to achieve a productive group experi-ence, students need to understand exactly what they are being askedtc do, how they should go about doing it, when the assignment is tobe completed, and what the individual benefits are likely to be. Aswe would expect, after a student receives an improved grade on apiece of writing that group members have responded to, he or shewill be eager to participate in future workshops. As a result, both theteacher's goal of improved writing and the student's goal of im-proved grades become one unified, achievable goal.

Collaborative Writing

Students can also be grouped to collaboratively plan, draft, and re-vise a writing assignment for a common grade. The following threeri,,,dtls are appropriate to this group learning experience:

1. The responsibility for drafting specific parts of a writing as-signment, planned by the group as a whole, is delegated to in-dividuals. The group then col!aborates to revise and edit theparts into a single coherent whole.

2(j

Interactive Learning to the Composition Classroom 25

2. Each member of the group writes a first c ft of the whole as-signment, which has been jointly planr d by the group. All ofthe drafts are responded to and commented on by the group.A synthesis is arrived at consensually by the group members,who thee revise and edit the final copy in concert.

3. A group of writers sits together and plans, drafts, and revises apiece of writing, which thus becomes a single response to theassignment.

In All three models, the group accepts joint responsibility for theplanning and rev sing of the final product; only the drafting processaffords alternatives.

Certainly, some writing assignments are more conducive to groupcollaboration than others. The following are two assignments thathave worked particularly wellthe first in freshman compositionand the second in a business writing course.

Students in the freshman composition course were formed intogroups to decide on a common grievance experienced within or out-side the college. Individuals were responsible for gathering informa-tion from interviews, observations, questionnaires, and print or filmsources. They pooled this information and drafted a report on theproblem and its solution following any one of the procedural modelspresented above. Typical grievances included inadequate on-campusparking, course registration complexities and delays, drinking-agerestrictions at campus functions, and harassment of teenaged driversby local police.

The business writing students collaborated on a sales letter/pro-otion for a hypothetical new estaurant. Groups in this class wrotean assumption sheet that covered (1) the target market and why itwas chosen, (2) the "vital statistics" of the proposed restaurant (type,location, decor, etc ) and why it would appeal to the target market,and (3) a description of any enclosures (brochures, coupons, con-sumer testimonials, etc.) that would be included with the letter andwhy they would be effective supplements. Both the assumption sheetand the final copy of the sales letter were collaboi atively written,with each group choosing to follow one of the three proceduralmodels described above.

Both assignments received a single grade, which was shared by allthe members of a group. After the assignments were completed,each student evaluated the group experience in w lung, includingan analysis of his or her own and others' contributions. For the stu-dents, these written evaluations put the cooperative writing experi-


ence into perspective as a useful tool for both academic and careergoals. For the teacher, the evaluations afforded a basis for evaluat-ing individual performance within the group so that interactionamong group members could become even more productive in fu-ture cooperative projects.

Understandably, some teachers are uncomfortable and, thtiLfore,reluctant to give students a grade in common for a collaborativelywritten assignment because the input by each individual will doubt-less be uneven. However, there are two excellent reasons not to shyaway from assigning a shared grade for cooperative projects: (I) thecollaboratively written assignment is just one grade out of many thatwill determine an individual's final grade for the course and, there-fore, probably will not unduly influence the final grade, and (2) theability to function effectively as part of a team is a marketable skill inboth the academic world and the business world. For example, busi-ness reports are frequently a collaboration between departments andindividuals; academic research studies are just as often a jointventure and the resultant articles necessarily coauthored. Therefore,students need to experience group cooperation first in an instruc-tional environment so that they can learn to effectively use small-group skills and interpersonal skills. Human progress has been asmuch a record of group effort as it ha., been a consequence of indi-vidual genius. Everyone needs to learn to work productively ingroups; writers are no exception.

Criteria for Forming Interactive Learning Groups

For both peer response and collaborative writing groups, I havefound that the optimum number of students is four or five. How-ever, pairing students to respond to each other's writing early in thesemester is helpful as an introduction to the group experience.Some pairs can switch partners to keep the activity productive forthose who progress more quickly through the assignment. Largergroups can be formed once the students are comfortable working intwos or threes.

WLether the groups are formed by the students' choice, randomlyassigned (such as by counting off), or assigned by the teacher is amatter of the instructor's goals. Sclf-chosen groups might be moremotivating for some individuals who find it important to be withfriends or with thos.- whom they perceive as potentially friendly. As-signed groups can be either homogeneousgrouped by major fieldof study or interest in a particular topicoi heterogeneous, with

Interactive Learning in the Composition Classroom 27

writers of varying skills or interests. Groups formed by random se-lection prevent any prejudicial influence by either the teacher or thestudents.

However, to effectively develop mutual trust and genuine two -way communication, the groups in a composition class should re-main stable for at least half a semester (a whole semester is prefera-ble). Again, the teacher's goals and assessment of the productivity ofthe groups would he the deciding factors in how often the groupsshould re-form. There is really no prescription that fits every situa-tion.

A Word about Computers

Increasingly, composition courses are being taught on the computer,which affords a wonderful opportunity to introduce both collab-or-,ive writing and peer response groups. Because one's writing isreadily viewable on-screen, computers foster social interaction ascompared with the private (and often lonely) experience of pen-and-paper composing. Therefore, students can comfortably interact firston an informal, one-to-one basis before being assigned to a specificgroup. We have only to take advantage of this "openness" of com-puter-assisted composing to encourage a positive attitude toward co-operative learning.

My own experience using peer response groups and assigning col-laborative writing has convinced me that cooperative learninggroups promise the most effective and enjoyable model for teachingwriting. We would do well to heed Peter Elbow's observation."Theie is a profound principle of learning here: we can learn to doalone what at first we could do only with others" (1981, p. 190).

References

Bruffee, K. A. 1980 A Short Course in Writing. 2nd eci. Boston: Little,Brown.

Elbow, P. 1973. Writing without Teachers. Nev. York. Oxford University Press.. 1981. Writing with Power. New York. Oxford University Press.

Johnson, D., and R Johnson. 1983. The Socialization and AchievementCrisis: Are Cooperative Learning Experietm,:s the Solution; In AppliedSocial Psychology Annual 4 Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage

. 1986. Computer-A -sisted Cooperative Learning Educational Tech-nology 26 (January): 12-18.

Wiener, H. S 1986. Collaborative Learning in the Classroom A Guide toEvaluation College Enghsh 48.52-61.

.mor. smair

4 The Power of Collaboration

Carol GillesUniversity of Missouri

Marc Van DoverJefferson Junior High SchoolColumbia, Missouri

The television news and the newspaper had both reported theUnited States' attack on Libya. By noon the junior high students hadheard about it. Five seventh graders burst into their classroom trail-er and the discussion began:

Jane: We need to discuss this!Diana: Please, let us talk about it!Other voices joined the chorus. The teacher, Marc VanDover,

sighed, "There go the lesson plans." He drew a map of Libya andthe "Line of Death" on the board; a spirited discussion began. Thestudents decided to express their opinions in a letter to PresidentReagan. They talked about how the letter should be organized, andeach student wrote a part of it. They consolidated the parts of theletter and critiqued it. Then the students revised their shared letter,questioning themselves about the clarity of their stated intentions.They asked the teacher to type a final copy and to mail it.

Observers of this group might conclude that this is a class of aca-demically talented and gifted students who are considc ing currentevents. These are the students who can discuss issues, make &it-mons, and use both their interests and the processes of reading andwriting. It couldn't be a class for learning-disabled studentsbut it is.

From the research literature, we know that learning-disabled Ni

dcnts have difficulty reading, do -.ot do we'l in school, may drop outor get in trouble with the law, are not as popular as non-disabledclassmates (Bryan 1974), "emit and receive more rejection state-ments than non-disabled classmates" (Bryan and Bryan 1978, p.

29

33


33)the list goes on and on. The literature states little about w hatlearning-disabled students can do.

In the classroom described above, collaboration pros ides thefiamework that allows students to show what they can do. Thisseventh-grade resource room is a place where students labeledlearning-disabled can improve their reading, writing, and math pro-cesses while receiving support with their mainstream coursework.Collaboration invites students to be decision ntakers. As they discussand make plans, students practie not old; their linguistic and cog-nitive skills but their social skills as well. Reading and writing areused to solve real pi obit ms, and students soon see the necessity andthe power of literacy. In such authentic settings, students are morewilling to invest the time and effort needed to become proficientreaders and writers.

Observations on the Collaboration Process

Yetta Goodman (1978) stated that teachers can learn about studentsfrom students. This is done by carefully observing what they say anddo. Such direct information both informs theory and improves prac-tice. The following principles emerged from ca.-eful obsery ation ofthe teachet- and students described aboye as they engaged in the col-laborative process.

1. Collaboration works best when students c,iegutn a real problem to solve.

When a contrived curriculum is applied to students, there can be lit-tle honest discussion, problem soh ing, or collaboration. Studentsmust feel ownership in the collaborative process.

For example, the classroom for VanDoYer's students is housed ina trailer. One cold February day, the teacher stopped class by saying,

I know we need to work on 'sing our whale letters but Ithink we e haw a more immediate problem The problem is thosecars that park so close to the trailer. I noticed lots of \ OU hadtrouble getting m the (loot today. I nearb, had to climb over thecars Nhat should we do?

Leaving the question open, I:ant/0%er invited a response. Jeffsuggested throwing eggs at the ears, Jane recommended clumpingcoffee grounds on them Everyone had a good laugh, ind then Janesuggested putting signs on the cals. l'he students discussed he mer-its of "Don't Park I Ierc versus polite messages that would congratu-

The Power of Collaboration 31

late those \silo hadn't parked so close to their classroom trailer. Thegroup decided to remind those who had parked too close to thetrailer not to do so. After agreeing on the appropriate types of signsand the tools needed for lettering, they set to % %ork. The studentsconsulted one another on appropriate spellings because, as Maryquietly explained to the teacher, "We uant the people to be able toread them." When the signs Isere finished, they read each other'ssigns, added finishing touches, and posted them.

Making signs was a t,,a.)- to soh e a problem that required 'sratenlanguage that was meaningful to the students. The process of con-structing the signs required vs riling (composing, revising, and edit-ing), reading (both one's oun sign and others' signs), and problemsolving through talking and listening. These students proyed tothemselves that in our society people can expi ess their concernsthrough writing.

2. A collaborative environment grows slowly.

A collaborative enyironment is nurtured by a teacher s%ho considersesery one to be a resource, is ho allows risks to he taken and mistakesto be made, and s%ho doesn't always hake "the right answer."

VanDover yieus his classroom as a place where students practicesolving problems. He often begins class by reading aloud an articledealing with a topic or a problem that would be engaging to his stu-dentsyear-long school, the endangered sshales, X-ra,'ng.,, on rockmusic. He invites discussion, and often he asks student ) do a free-writing concerning how they feel about the issue If some studentschoose to do more with the topic, he allows that choice and acts asresource for their project.

Everyone in VanDover's room is a resource pet son. At the begin-ning of the year u hen students asked a question, VanDover uouldoften strait before responding. During 'hat uait time. it became com-mon to hear another student sa}, "I could help her unh that." Van-Doy er encourages students to consult one another ulli t they hakequestions, aid if they still need help to come to him. 'Vk ithout ab-dicating authority, he makes it clear that eseryone in the room hascertain abilities and talents that can be tapped.

VanDover demonstrates to students that he is a learnei and thatthey can be teachers. He shares books he loses and pieces of his ounuriting. fie invites students to teach the class. In order to assume therole of teacher, the students decide what to teach. prepare lessonplans, check the plans with VanDoyerind then instruct the class

32 De-at-op:rig Collaborative Learning Skills

They often reflect their teacher's practices. For example, two stu-dents-turned-teachers included sustained silent reading in theirplan; the class regularly read silently or listened as the teacher readto them. However, unlike VanDoyer's regular practice, both stu-dents moved around the classroom during the reading time insteadof reading. This disrupted the other students' reading, and thelessons that followed were less than successful After the second stu-dent- teacher finished, VanDoYer talked with the class about whathe'd learned from the lesson. He said, "Watching you made methink of things that I'm not doing. I don't stop growing or learningjust because I'm the teacher. By watching you I see that if I assignreading, I should do it. If I assign writing, I should do that, too."After that day, whenever students wrote in their journals or read si-lently, VanDover joined them.

3. Collaboration isn't a panacea.

Collaboration is not immune to problems. In fact, working throughthese problems is a part of col!aboration that helps make the class-room a community. For example, the first time one student taught,she jumped from topic to topic, asked students to read, interruptedtheir reading. and switched assignments. It was a disaster. Studentswere restless during her lesson and obviously unhappy. Instead ofinterrupting her lesson, however, VanDover chose to have the stu-dents discuss the experience:

VanDover. I think we car really learn from each other if we dothis. And I'd like to go on and try it again, if anyone wants to bethe teacher. But what I want to know as a group, what can we dodifferently? How did /e react to lane's being the teacher?Mary: Very silly.

VanDover: Why%

Diana Because she wasn't a good teacher. [Looking at Jane]Sorry.

Jeff. She didn't teach us anything. She could teach us moreVanDover Okay, what do you want to do differently=Jeff Well, maybe if we act more like students, she'll act more Ilk°a teacher. No more goofing off.Diana Maybe she could teach us something like she learned inScience or World Cultures

The discussion continued as students brainstormed ways of mak-ing the "teacher of the clay" expel ience richer and more meaningfulto them.

The Power of Collabora:wn 33

They had learned that as members of a community, they couldnot expect all the activities they initiated to work, but as they workedthrough problems, they became more responsible for their ow nparts in the learning process. Dewey (1938) wrote that schoolingmust reflect real life. Real life has problems and obstacles. Lettingstudents work through problems encountered in th., collaborationprocessinstead of the teacher identifying the problem, making thedecision, and administering disciplinary actionhelps students toprepare for real life.

4 Students do not have to be directly involved in the collaboration to learnfrom it.

Frank Smith (1983) believes that :se learn vicariously . That is, whenwe are engaged with some person's demonstration, we learn from it.Dorothy Watson insists we learn 80 percent of what we know byeavesdroji ling (personal communication, 14 June 1986). If studentsare interested and engaged, even those on the periphery of thelearning event can benefit from the event.

In VanDover's class, Amy seemed to have severe problems. Sheoften worked on math assignments during class and rarely partici-pated in class discussions. However, when s;,,e was interviewed, Amyindicated that she had both understood and remembered many ofthe discussions and activities initiated by class members. Amy's un-derstanding of current events and problem solving had grow n be-cause of her presence in the class, even though there were few de-mands on her to participate overtly.

Jeff is another example. When asked if he learned anything fromclmsmates, he responded, "Well, I was listening to Mary help Amy. Iwas listening to them 'cause I was waiting for Mr. VanDover, and ilearned a little bit about different sorts of angles." He went on to ex-plain obtuse, acute, and right anglesa unit his math teacher hadnot yet coffered. When students are interested, engaged in the dem-onstration, and free from the fear of failing, they can and Jo learnfrom one another.

Conclusion

VanDover's classroom is a community of language users. As in anycommunity, there are decisions to be made, tne-finings to be negoti-ated, and tasks to be completed. The process of collaboration insitesstudents to become more fame language users and more confident


in their interpersonal relations. As special education students learnthat they can be decision makers, they gain confidence and are lessdependent on the teacher.

This self-reliance was illustrated one day when Van Dover was ab-sent. The class had decided earlier to write to Huy nh Quang, the au-thor of The Land I Lost, a book VanDov er had read to them. Thesubstitute teacher asked students to brainstorm what needed to beincluded in the letter. She recorded their comments on the board,often ac_ :cloning their linguistic preferences for her o% .. The dis-cussion dragged, and finally Jane could stand it no more. She stoodup and announced, "Oh, I know what should go next!" She grabbedsome chalk and motioned to her classmates for support.

To her credit, the substitute teacher sat down. The tenorchanged. When the students realized this was their letter, ideas wereplentiful and Jane dutifully arid accurately recorded them. The stu-dents regarded the substitute as a resource person and solicited herideas on spellings, correct closings, and standard grammar. The let-ter was finished just before the bell rang. Was the substitute teacher

y? After all, the students had taken her lesson and made it theirown. As they filed out, she sighed, "I've never been in a class % herethe students wanted so much to learn. And there are no points, nonames on the board . . ." Her voice trailed off, and she shook herhead. "If all classes were like this, subbing would be a pleasure."

When students use collaboration , -) take control of their ownschooling, learning is a pleasure, too.

References

Bryan, T.H. 1974. Peer Popularity of Learning Disabled Children. Journal ofLearning Disabilities 7: 621-25.

Bryan, T.H., and J.H. Bryan. 1978. Social Interact,ons of Learning DisabledChildren. Learning Disability Quarterly 1: 33-38.

Dewey, J. 1938. Experience and Education. New York: Collier Books.Goodman, Y. 1978. Kid Watching. An AlternatRe to Testing National Ele-

mentary Principal 57, no 4: 41-45.Smith, F. 1984. Essays into Literacy. Exeter, N.H

c_,

Heinemann.

5 Fine Cloth, Cut Carefully:Cooperative Learningin British Columbia

Tom MortonPrince of Wales Secondary SchoolVancouver, British Columbia

Teachers can structure student interaction in three principal ways.First, like Rocky Balboa in the ring, students can compete in a classroom to see who is best; when the hell curve rings they di e there towin or lose. Second, teachers can require students to work individu-ally, live long-distance runners. As with Lily Tomlin's wry paradox,they're all in this . . . alone. Lastly, teachers can organize their classinto small groups to work interdependently and collaboratively tomaster the assigned material. Like mountain climbers scaling a cur-ricular mountain, they succeed or fail together.

In British Columbia, competitive and individualistic teachingtechniques dominate our pedagogy, yet recently school boards, col-leges, and teachers have shown increasing interest in cooperativestrategies. For the last two years I have been involved with thirtyother teachers in a program with David Johnson and Roger Johnsonof the University of Minnesota. The material they have provided usis fine, cut carefully to the lessons of implementation research, and itis from this cloth that I have fashioned the approaches describedhere.

Elements of Effective Collaboration

For the Johnsons, cooperative learning is much inure than puttingstudents into groups. Effective collaboration must include four ele-ments:

The first is positive interdependence. There must be a structureto ensure that the group works together. For example, I often assigna mutual goal such as a group report, at other times. I divide the as-signment into different tasks or distribute different materials but

35

36 Developing Collaborative Leal fling Skills

make each part necessary to complete the 1, hole assignment. In ad-dition, there _an be different but complementary behavioral rolesfor each student, such as summarizer, encourager, or understandingchecker. Joint rewards, such as a whole or partial group grade, freetime, or privileges, also promote interdependence.

The second key element seems obvious to me, but many studentsstill balk in the first few weeks when I ask them to sit "looking andfacing each other" or, as the Johnsons say, "eye-to-eye and k-to-k"(knee to knee). (One useful approach to convince my senior studentsof the importance of seating is to show them diagrams of the variousseating plans the United States and North Vietnam argued over forsix months during the Vietnam War. Eight thousand Americans andmany more Vietnamese died during those six months.)

The third key element is individual responsibility. The biggestcomplaint I used to get from students about group work was aboutthe "hitchhiker," who goes along for the ride but doesn't contribute.I do not want to level the top students down but to bring the bottomones up, so now, although the group learns in a collaborative man-ner, each student must be responsible for some task.

Fourthly, cooperative learning requires students to use appropri-ate interpersonal skills. Teachers should not assume that studentsknow how to behave in groups We need to teach that "how." start-ing with basic skills such as rnoN ing quickly and quiAy to join one'sgroup members, and progressing to more advanced skills such aspar aphrasing. Then we need to monitor and support the use ofthese skills.

The Elements in Practice

In the first few weeks, I divide the class randomly into groups ofthree for cooperative lessons. Sometimes I ask them to number offin English one day, French or Chinese another, at other times I askfor nine or ten famous authors and we "author off." The learning,cams vary in composition early on so that the students have time toget to know a variety of classmates and so that I can evaluate theirsocial skills for future grouping. In addition, the collaboratne skillstraining is integrated with content lessons.

At the end of the month, I assign the students to heterogeneousgroups on the basis of their social am academic skills levels. The se-lection ideally mixes students of diffaent academic abilities, differ-em social skills, different cult al es, and different friendship groups.

4

Cooperative Learning in British Columbia 37

My own evaerie-ice and research support heterogeneity in trying tobuild a supp?7.-iive climate and high academic standards. Theseteams become base groups for the majority of group projects forseveral months, though I will change them when necessary (for ex-ample, when I want to use student observers). The life of a grouppasses through several stages before a period of high product;vity;therefore, in order for groups to reach the most rewarding level, themembers need time to become comfortable with one another and todevelop strategies f working together.

Reaching that level, where students accomplish a great deal andenjoy working together, requires much encouragement, practice,and coaching. The lesson structurepositive interdependence andindividual responsibilityand the ability to use collaborative skillsare key, but other approaches can help. I give pep talks, frequentlyrefer to the rationale with examples from the work world, celebratesuccesses, and above all process group ex -rcises. Processing meansdiscussion after a lesson about how well the group did. Sometimesthis can be fairly informal, such as waen I ask the teams to discussand w down their answers to two questions. ''What did you dowell .1 this lesson? and "What could you do beau- next time?" Atother times, I supply detailed evaluation sheets that ask for com-ments on who actively listened, who offered encouragement, and thelike as well as what could be improved. Observation sheets areimportant for providing feedback, which is often surprising to tilestudents and which helps processing.

Group members sink or swim together. Evaluation may dependon a group result (for example, a single repo.t on a topic or a singlesolution to a problem), or it may b individual but with bonus marksif all team members achieve a certain mark on a test. This interde-pendence is essential to ensure that the team won ks together, but itusually means too that in at least one group the majority will be vex-ed or disappointed at some poin. ,,Ach someone who lets the groupdown. I respond quickly to this sItuation in three main ways: expandthe processing to explore the reasons for failure and possible solu-tions, give extra coaching to individual students to make sure theysucceed on the test or assignmc, and negotiate different standardsfor success on an exam or different ta, '-s for completion of an as-signment.

Almost any content area can be tailored to a cooperative structure(although Romeo and Juliet was the hardest to plan, and a visit fromthe CBC National News to videotape a lesson on poverty was thescariest).


The trickster side of me leads my lessons to puzzles, games, andproblem solving, such as a mystery to solve or an essay to piece to-gether from jumbled sentences. For a mystery lesson, as developedby Gene Stanford (1977), each student is provided a card with oneor more clues to read aloud but not to show to someone else or giveaway. There is one answer (requiring interdependence), and eachmember must be able to explain how to arrive at the answer (indi-vidual responsibility). The mystery structure can be used for manygamesfor example, a vocabulary exercise based on a study of ep-onyms, in which each student has a clue and the group has the taskof guessing the eponym, as below.

Clues: 1. This word has three syllables.2. This WO, :1 refers to a close-fitting garment.3 This noun is associated with dance.4. This word comes from a nineteenth- 'entury

French trapeze performer.Answer: leotard

Clues. 1. Romeo's friend in Romeo and Juliet had a similarname and appropriate temperament.

2. This word has the same origin as the name of oneof the planets.

3. This word comes from the Roman god of elo-quence, skill, and thievery'.

4. This word is an adjective that means lively', witty,changeable, and quick-tempered.

Answer: mercurial

The same structure works well for a grammar game with the goalof constructing a single sentence and instructions like these.

1. Use the passive

2. Use an appositive.

3. Use the present tense.4. Use two verbs for your predicate.

For group assignments I prefer those that invoke inventivenessand creativity and thus profit the most from the group process. Oneof my favorites with juniors follows from a reading of excerpts fromSwift's "Rules That Concern Servants in General" and W000yAllen's "A Brief, Yet Helpful, Guide to Civil Disobedience." Usingtl'e list format, I ask groups to complete one of the following par-odies of rules:

Cooperative Learning in Brztrsh Columbia 39

L List the usually unstated rules for winning in hockey, basket-ball, politics, and other violent sports.

2. Give advice to admiring elementary school students on hos% tosurvive secondary school.

3. Create a foolproof plan on how to get an F or an A in this class.4. Write a child's curriculum guide for educating parents, teach-

ers, brothers and sisters, goldfish, vacuum cleaner salespersons,etc.

In the parody assignment, interdependence is increased by specif-ic group roles: one student writes down ideas and the final product,a second checks for correct English, and the third reads the parodyto the class. These roles can also be collaborative. Here is an exam-ple of a role description I've used from a Jefferson County, Colora-do, science textbook (1982):

Summarizer

You are to restate the group's assignment as soon as the groupmeets. Keep the group's attention on the task. Check to makesure all members get a chance to give their ideas and participate.Restate the ideas expressed. Summarize the group decisions.Make sure every member has a job to do. In case of absences, di-vide absentee's job among members present Check to makesure everyone agrees with group's decisions. When the work isdone, get group members' signatures Jn the group product, sig-nifying that they have helped with and approve the work. 3eprepared to explain your group's product of decision and to de-scribe how your group worked together. Also, it is your respon-sibility to use the group skills. (quoted in Johnson and Johnson1984, p. 403)

For Romeo and Juliet I am obliged to walk throwth the play withmy grade-11 classes first for initial comprehension hen we use the

jigsaw method developed by Elliot Aronson (1978) to deepen or.:understanding. Each learning team has an act foi which they are tobe the experts, and each student has an element of the a( t to ana-lyze; more capable students have to look for theme and mood, andweaker ones describe the plot and character. Together the teammembers write up their descriptions with colored felt-tip pens onlarge posters and then teach the (lass. The poster format makes theanalysis a proud decoration and a good st-xly aid. Es aluation isbased on a single final product.

Probably my most exciting, though most complex, cooperativelessons have been centered on controversial topics and sti uctured onthe Johnsons. (1982) model. I's e des eloped lessons on topics such as

4


the World War Two Canadian raid on Dieppe and U.S. investmentin Canada, but my most controversial lesson involvt.J conflicting im-ages of Fritish Columbia from a government booklet and a teachers'federation unit on poverty in the province. Both publications werehot political items and often in the news, so when the CBC NationalNews tempted me with a siren call of fame, I agreed to let them tapemy class.

The actual lesson struccale is too long to explain fully here, but inbrief, I as.igned students into gro"ps of four and divided themagain into pairs, one for each side of the debate. Partway into thedebate, the students had to switch sides and argue their opponent'sp.evious position. In the end, the four worked together to write asingle report on their opinion of our province.

Unfortunately, I have no sordid behind-the-camera stories to tellbecause less spellbound voices convinced me that in the charged cli-mate the news story might be misinterpreted. I tied my self to themast and canceled the taping. We had a great class, but the contro-versy stayed inside the classroom.

Conclusion

Despite all the mish.,psand implementing cooperative learning isnot easymy own experience. along with educational research fromthe University of Minnesota (Johnson, Johnson, and Johnson-Holubec 1986) and Johns Hopkins T)niversity (Slavin 1986), sup-ports the advantages of cooperation cc,mpared to competition andindividual work. A meta-analysis of :22 earlier studies (Johnson etal. 1981) strongly indicaies higher performance, especially in higher-level complex tasks such as concept attainment and problem solving.In addition, cooperative le4r,ung -omotes more positive attitudestoward the subject areas sic:pled, greatti competency in workingwith others, more respect for diveisity, and greater perceptions ofthe grading system as fair.

Yet interesting echo ational innovations are like socks. they won'',stand up unless a teacher sears them. Too often, textbooks or strat-egies are thrown to the i.cacher mismatched, the wrong size, and fullof holes. Sometimes they only stand up because they are smelly andold. However, in the implementation program organized here by theVancouver As,,ociation of `'holistic Edaca..lon, the VancouverSchool Board, and Douglas Community College, the material is wellmatched and well tail )red to teacher needs, with released time for

4

Cooperative Learning in 13r:fish Columbia 41

workshops, monthly meetings, support teams, and classroom coach-ing. New programs ha\ e also followed the success of the originalthirty teachers.

The ideal of students sharing. supporting, and challenging eachother in striing to'%ard academic excellence is a powerful one. Withthe high-quality f'bric of cooperathe learning and a careful impl2-mentation design, in my classroom and those of other inNokedteachers, the ideal has increasingly become actualized in studentpractice.

References

Aronsop. E., et al. 1978. The Jigsaw Classroom Newbury Park, Calif.. Sage.Johnson, D., and F. Johnson 1982 Joining Together. Group Theory and Group

Skills. Englewood Cliffs, N J.: Prentice-Hall.Johnson, D., and R. Johnson. 1984. Cooperative Learning. New Brighton,

Minn.. Intel action.Johnson, D.. R. Johnson, and E. Johnson-Holubec. 1986. Circles of Learning.

Cooperation in the Classroom. Edina, Minn.: InteractionJohnson, D., G Maruyarna, R. Johnson, D. Nelson, and L. Skon. 1981 Ef-

fects of Co- operative, Competitive, and Indhiclualistic Goal Structures onAchiesement: A Meta-Analysis. Psychological Bulletin 89. 47-62.

Pratt, H., and B. J Meadows, coordinators. 1982. Topics in Applied Sciences.Jefferson County Public Schools, Colorado.

Slasin, R. 1986 Using Student Team Learning. Baltimore. Johns Hopkins Um-versity Press.

Stanford, G. 1977 Developing Effective Classroom Grout Ness York. Hart.

4

6 A Writing Teacher's Guide toProcessing Small-Group Work

E Kathleen BooherOld Dominion University

Many teachers have discoye: ed great value in using peer writinggroups in the classroom. However, some of us are concerned thatstudents may not gain as much through the group experience as wewould like. What teachers often feel they lack is processing (or de-briefing) skillsstrategies to promote their students' immediate ex-amination of what they have just done in groups.

Most students arc ,.ot yet capable of both extracting the purposeof their activity from their experience and evaluating their accom-plishments. These are sophisticated skills. As professional educators,we can provide the structure within which our students can developtheir abilities of self-examination.

In short, this is what a processing session is all about. it should in-vite students to contemplate w hat is happening to them as writersand as members of peer wiiting groups

What Is Processing?

Processing is a teacher-led activity that immediately follows small-group work. The teacher assumes the role of facilitator, which in-volyes questioning, suggesting, and directing the discussion. It helpsif students are seated in a somewhat circular or horseshoe arrange-ment, individually or clustered in groups. The inure eye contacteach student can make with others in the entire group, the morelikely they all will be to engage in dialogue lather than to ?eat( onlyto the teacher.

What Should I Do?

As facilitator, you will select two of three key questions to focus thediscussion. You might join your students by taking a chair in the cit-

4 3

46

44 Developing Collethw alive Lcarning Skis

de. Or you could stand outside the circle, moving about and makingeye contact with all. In a horseshoe arrangement, you might sit orstand in the opening. In either arrangement, standing communi-cates more teacher control over the atm it), while sitting turns moreof the control over to the students.

Because a major purpose of small-group processing is to encour-age students to accept responsibility for their own learning, you canhelp your students most by working toward less teacher control.Your decisions about that, howeser, may Nary from one class to an-other, from one age group to another, and esen from one momentto the next during a single session. You may find, for instance, thatif you stand early in the session, restless students settle down, morequickly. Once discussion is under way, your taking a seat may go un-noticed and will not affect student dialogue.

How Long Should a Processing Session Last?

The answer could be cws, minutes, or twenty, or moredependingon your objectives and your students' ages and attention spans. Insome activities you might want students to reassemble as a class for afeeling of closure or togetherness before the school day or class pe-riod ends. Working in small groups without e'en a brief return tothe large group can bring feelings of fragmentation or incom-pleteness to the actryny. For a short debriefing with young children,you might simply ask, "How many a you had a good idea todaywhile you wrote: What good idea did you hear in your group thatyou'd like the entire class to hear Then, after one or two studentshave shared their ideas, that day's session could end.

What Questions Should I Ask?

Your questions will depend on mans consideiacions. how experi-enced your students are as writers and small-group workers, whattype of writing they re doing, what the small group was asked to ac-complish, where you are III sour insti uctional plans. The two orthree que.mons you select will focus the ensuing discussions: there-fine, you should develop questions that lead to the writing and shar-ing goals you hake in mind. In any case, processing, like all educa-tional experiences, shnuld be approached developmentally. Design theprocessing so that it encourages students to (1) explore their writingand small-group behavior, (2) "own" what they dis«ner about theirbehasior, and (3) act on these discoycites appropriately.

Guide to Processing Small-Group Work 45

The following are some questions you might ask, depending onthe developmental goals for your class(es)

To encourage students to gain control over their writing processes:

Was it easy or difficult to get started? Why?

Describe the moment you put pen to paperWhat happens to you physically while you write?Do you reread and rewrite? How does that happen for you?Did the time for writing seem long? Short?Where does your writing seem to be going?What do you do about planning throughout the process?Did any of you make an outline? When? What does it look like?When can you tell you're finished with a piece?

To encourage students to assume resporisibilit) for their products.

What kinds of writing did you do today?How much did you get to write in the time you had?Does your writing today add up to something?Has your writing arrived somewhere? Where?Have y n u made it clear why you wanted to u, ite the piece you'reworking on?

How can you find out if your piece said chat you uanted it to?What do you want to do with this writing?

To encourage students to consider their environmental needs for writing.

What writing tools do you like to use?How would you describe your writing habits?What sort of setting do you like for writing?What can you do to help \ ourself write in the classroom;At what time of day or night do you like to write?How much time does "setting up" take?

To encourage students to acknou ledge then attitudes about in thug

How did you feel when I asked you to write?

Does anyone feel anxious about getting started?Can you describe how writing makes you feel?

46 Developing Collaborative Learning SlalA

What is it about writing that sometimes makes you anxious?

Which part of your piece brought sou the most pleasure (or paw; asyou wrote?

How did you feel when you read our piece?Where do you think these feelings come from?Why do many of us make apologies for our pieces before we readthem?

How did you feel about the responses your group gale you today?How does feeling angry (or afraid, happy, etc.) affect your ability towrite?

To encourage student., to develop good small-group working strategies.

What were some of the responses you recessed in your group today?What are you doing when members of your group apologize beforethey read?

How can you include your groupmates who may not talk as .,such asyou?

How do you make sure eYeryone gets to read;

How much of your group discus,ron was on track? Off track; Whoseresponsibility is that?

What do you do when all the members of your group think youneed to write something differently?

Evaluation of Processing

How do you eNaluate the success or failuce of \ o u r proce,sing ef-forts; Through results If your students gradually show more inter-est in the process (their own and their peers'), if they assume in-« easing concern about the products they hand in, if they showcourtesy for others while they write, if they talk openly about howwriting makes them feel, and, finally . .1 they work more effectiYelyin their groups as the semestet wears on, then there is a eery goodchance that your processing time is working.

R,..member, debriefing your students Ate' small-group work, likewriting. is a process You get }retiet at it the more you practice.

4

II Collaborative Learningand Literature Study

5 j

7 Cooperative Learningin the Literature Classroom

Rex EasleyUniversity of Cincinnati

The English department at MN unnersas offers an "Introduction toShort Stories" course, which I suspect is much like Introductory litcourses in English departments all over the country. I y pically theclass contains about thirty-fise students, none of whom is in the hu-manities and all of whom are sery grade-conscious. The studentstake the class because it fills a hunrinities slot in their oserall gradua-tion requirements. They come into the course expecting an easygrade and a passise learning situationone in which the instructortells them what to know. Their background in literature is weakoverall, and they usually bring to the class a negatise attitude towardreading the "classics" of short fiction. They haze all eady learnedthat literature, especially literature meant to he studied rather thanenjoyed, consists of mysterious and boring writing that Englishteachers seem capable of reading a great deal into.

A course such as this is -asoally taught as a leceare /discussion.though discussion is probably an exaggeration. Stories are assignedand students come to class and listen to the "correct" interim etationof the story (some students attempt to answer the instructor's discus-sion questions, while most remain doggedly silent). Then on tests thestudents repeat this information, I ecorded in class notes and memo-rized the day before the test, to show the instructor IN, hat they 's elearned. And often what thes'sc really lean ned is that the most suc-cessful students are those who are the best at guessing what the in-structor wants to hear.

This situation, then, was the kind I found ms self facing when Idecided, after }rasing taught the short story class in the traditionalway for several sears, that my students and tlesersed somethingbetter. For one thing, I wanted them to gain a more meaningful ac-cess to the stories the\ readto interact with each stors instead ofjust studying it as an object. For anodic', I wanted their tole in the

r,/

9

50 Collaborative Learning and Literature Study

class to be participatory, not passive. I wanted them to think forthemselves instead of relying on me to tell them what to think. Andis much as any thing else, I wanted my students to like the stories.hey read and to find the course itself more pleasure than drudgery.But how was I to get a large group of passive grade-oriented non-majors who weren't even taking the course by choice to involvethemselves wholeheartedly in the kind of exchange of ideas and re-sponses that I envisioned?

The solution to that problem proved to be deceptively simple. Iapproached them through their biggest worry in the coursetheessay tests. I knew from past experience that giving essay exams in aliterature class can cause problems. Students complain of too littletime and too much pressure, while teachers are usually disappointedbecause the students rarely deliver what the teacher really hopesforideas and insights that go beyond those given out by the teach-er in class, Then it occurred to me that maybe I should have the lit-erature students do what students in my composition classes weredoing prior to writing, that is, working together in small groups tofigure out what their topics required, deciding on an approach andsomething to say, helping each other, and learning from their con-versations. As with a composition class, I would try to shift the em-phasis from product to process.

At the start of the class time set aside for preparing for the firsttest, I gave the students the actual test questions. For each story onthe exam, I devised a set of three questions that raised the kinds ofissues I conside; ed important for a reader's understanding of thestory. I told the students that these were indeed the real test ques-tions and that from each group of three I would choose one as thequestion for that story.

Before dividing the students into groups, I explained what ac-ceptable answers would consist of. I said that I was open to any ideasthat addressed the topiceven if those ideas didn't happen to agreewith mineso lonK as their views were supportable. I showed them,using several well-known examples, that critics disagreed with eachother all the time. Thus, a "good" answer on the test would be Onethat thcy could make plausible by explaining what they were sayingand backing up the ideas with specific references to the stories.

I presented this "new" approach under the guise of practical ne-cessity. since there wasn't enough time to do both the thanking andthe writing fur ;hese topics in one hour, I was giving them thechance do the thinking in adv ance. And I suggested that whilethey were at it, here was a good opportunity to see if they were on

Cooperative Learning in the Literature Class? oorn 51

the right track by comparing ideas and possible answers with eachothera comparison that might help them clarify then own under-standing of each story. Then I put them into groups of four to sixand handed out the test questions.

The first response was mild skepticism. Students asked if thesewere really the test questions or just "study hints," and one wantedto know if this was "all" they had to know about each story. Once intheir groups, though, they showed a surprising willingness to trytalking with each otherperhaps in part because I moved quicklyfrom group to group to ensure that each made some kind of start,even if it was only having a group .....,,fiber read the first questionaloud. Then I let the groups talk for a while, avoiding any participa-tion myself except to answer the occasional request for clarificationof the topics.

After each group had had enough time to get some tentativeideas out into the open, I began to sit in on first one group, then an-other, , get some sense of the direction of their discussion. Whenasked questions, I replied with another questionusually somethinglike "Who goc, along with that idea?" or "What would lead you tosay that?" or simply "Why do you ask that question?" As they beganto realize that I would not be providing answers, the questions be-came less frequent. Instead the group members found themselvestrying to explain to each other where their ideas tame from, and Iwould quietly move on to another group.

As I moved from group to group, I made an effort to encouragethe students to trade ideas, question each other, and expect reasonsfor each other's views. I also suggested that they make notes tothemselves and mark important passages on their own copies of thestories since they would be allowed to bring the copies with them totile examan additional incentiv e for them to listen to cacn otherand to folio the discussion in their groups. Their responsibility. Isaid, was not to memorize the story but to know what they wanted tosay about it.

The end of the class period found the groups in the middle oftheir discussions. They had more to sa about the stories than theyor I had imagined, and they wanted to cont;nuepartly, I suspect,because they thought I was doing them a favor by letting them worktogether and becausc it was turning out to be a relatively painlessway of "learning" the stories. So we pushed back the test, and ty henclass met the next time the students went straight into their groupsand took up where they had left off.

Over the next few weeks, all sorts of unexpected good things


began to happen. As students got caught up in their exchange ofideas, enthusiasm for talking about the stories blossomed. It was notunusual for me to arrive at class early and find groups already wellinto their discussions in the hall. At the end of class I had difficultyin getting them to wrap things up and leave. I found more stn Gentswanting to talk with me before class, after class, and in my office,and usually they wanted to share a new idea or insight they'd justhad. On test days they came in and wrote long well-developedessays, and the quality of the writing reflected what I believe was anincreasing degree of confidence in what they had to say.

As the semester went along, more and more of our class time wasgiven over to small-group discussion. The students began asking forthe question list as soon as a new story was assigned, and I respond-ed by giving them more questions per story. Then we talked overthe whole list before choosing, by mutual consent, the three mostimportant and interesting questions as the "official" test topics I

promoted a wider exchange of ideas by occasionally rotating half ofeach group to a new group and asking the new arrivals to summa-rize what their old group had to say about each question. Andthrough it all I reminded them that they were free to say whateverthey wanted as long as they could defend their views with explana-tion and examples.

It is probably clear by' now that this class far exceeded any expec-tations I had at the start. By the end of the course, the students wereroutinely carrying on extended literary conversations that I thinkwould be the envy of any graduate seminar in short stories, at leastin terms of interest and participation. What they were looking forwhen they came into class was the easiest route to a good grade thatthey could find. What they got was an experience that seems to havechanged their whole notion of their role as students. They learnedto evaluate rather than take things on faith, and they learned that"right answers" don't have to come from the teacherthat their ownresponses are just as valuable as anyone else's. The students saw anunderlying consistency in the way they all read and undcrstood thestories, even in the midst of their interpretive disagreements, andthis discovery gave them confidence in their integrity as readers. Indoing all these things, they also came to realize some of the complex-ity and satisfaction of literary' experiences for themselves.

Not losing sight of the original purpose of the collabui atv e learn-ing groups was, I think, very impo mnt to the success of our efforts.The test-preparation format and rationale created both the meansand the motivation fur the students to pursue a common goal to-

Cooperative Learning in the Literature Classroom 53

gether. Their own success and pleasure in doing so led directly to awillingness to become even more involved with the stories and withtheir groups. So extensive and thorough were their discussions thatthe students eventually learned far more about ach story and abouthow litek aturt works than they ever could have learned in a lecture/discussion class. And best of all, they loved doing it.

8 Group Library Researchand Oral Reportingin Freshman Composition

Parham SchoenState University of New York, College at Purchase

"But I would rather do the report by myself than with the group,"Julia complains, detaining me after class

Learning to work with people is as important as learning how todo the report," I tell her.

"But sup., 'se I do a lot of work and someone else . . .""Give it a try," I say, laying a hand on her arm. "1 think you'll like

this project."She leaves, unconvinced.Despite fears to the contrary, students do like this project. They

enjoy the variety of tasks, and they riderstand that they are exercis-ing research, reading, ,..vaking, and writing skills. They are lessaware that they are also, arning both to work with other people andto manage an extenr independent assignment.

The project fits naturally into the second semester of "Introducto-ry Writing." After a semester of critical reading and w riting cen-tered on a single text, we ioe on to papers based on multiplesourcessome of which require a library search. The protect, whichcomes in the fifth wcek of the semester, consumes all or part oftwelve class periods; the group part of the project occupies the firstsix.

The class, about twenty students, studic, two plays: The Crucible,o Arthur Miller, an account of the Salem witch trials of 1692, andInherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, a fiction-alized version of the Scopes "Monkey.' trial of 1925. 1 he project hasfour part,:

1. Group pi eparation and library research on both trialsclass periods)

2 Group oral reports on the 111 at y pest arch (2-3 class periods)

3. Itsading and discussion of plays (4 class periods)

55

56 Collaborative Learning and Liteiature Study

4. A comparison and contrast paper on a major theme that iscommon to both plays

Since the focus of the present volume is collaborative learning, Iwill discuss only the first two parts of the project in detail.

At the start, I explain that we will be reading two plays and lookinginto their backgrounds. We develop methods and schedules I addthat, incidentally, it has worked well to do the library research andthe oral reports in two study groups, one for each play. There areobjections, both immediate and delayed.

I override the objections and ask for general information abouteither play. Most classes can volunteer both the locale and the cen-tral issues. I suggest that students look over the plays before the nextclass, at which time we will form study groups actor ding to individu-al preferences.

"S000 -," I say at the beginning of the next class, "before wechoose our groups, let's talk about how to go about what we aregoing to do." I am deliberately vague. The class is temporarily non-plussed. The discussion might continue this way:

Student. Well, we could go to the library and look up about thetrials.

Teacher. Good. What about the trials?Student: Who did something wrong.Teacher: [writing the suggestion on the board] Okay What else?Student: What happened?Teacher. Fine. [writing] You mean likethe outcome? Thepunishment? [I am trying to move them to specifics.] What elsehappens at a trial?Students Judges, juries, lawyers .

Teacher [writing fast] Are both trials about the same thingClass. Witches, religion, evolution . .

Teacher We'd better make separate lists, one for each ti ial.

They don't thii.. of all aspects. I may have to digress on theMcCarthy-era hearings, creationism, or other examples. We find 3dozen or so topics for each trial. Each of these topics will generate abrief individual oral report.

After we have subdivided the general topic into specific ones, it istime to choose incliv idual topics. `.v ho'd like to do v% hat?" I ask,ready to write. Names att,..ch to topics quickly. the groups areformed.

r-6

Group Library Research and Oral Reporting 57

As an alternate procedure, groups can be chosen 01-ore detelop-ing specific topics; however, choosing after discussion helps ensurethat interest in the topic will override interest in the group lineup. Iform groups of equal size by carefully selecting Inch of the sug-gested topics I write on the board.

"Now," I tell them, "Let's get together with your groups. You canmove your chairs around."

They chatter and, perhaps, suggest that the groups be named"Monkeys" and "Witches." I don't join either group, but move casu-ally around the room. "Think aly- ut how to manage your presenta-'ion, now," I tell them.

Discussions begin:"Who goes first in the group?""It has to make sense from the topics.""We need to keep a list." Julia, who didn't want to work in groups,

volunteers to be recorder."Suppose someone is sick."They work through their preparations with little help from me

deciding on introductions, order of appearance, shifts of topics (anddumping the difficult tasks on absent members).

After the group discussions, the class is eager to get on with theresearch. Our next two classes are in the library. The first is con-ducted by a reference librarian, who is prepared to discuss ap-proaches to the specific tasks at hand. Students are attentive duringthis library sessionwhich could be dry and tediousbecause oftheir particular interest. "How do I find out who the jurors were forthe Scopes trial?" asks a student who has gotten started and run intotrouble. The librai ian emphasizes the differences in the strategiesthat must be used in researching events that happened in the recentpast and ones that happened two centuries ago.

The following class period, we meet again in the library, this timeto collect material. I drift while students sleuth. We have spoken inthe classroom about the group nature of this task. "If you find mate-rial that will be useful u another member of y out group, you mustlet him or her know." I emphasize the total presentation, not com-petition with the other group. It's important to help membeis of theother group, too. "Tina, show Joel how to use the microfilm." A co-operative spirit will make both presentab is more interestingandenhance the reading of the plays.

I try to make sure that each student is well started by the end ofthis period. There is only the rest of the week to finish the research.

58 Collaborative Learning and Literath, Study

On the dreaded report days, the actual reports proceed smoothly.As student after student contributes, the effect is umulatiye. Groupmembers break in spontaneously. "I found something else aboutthat." "Oh, you explained something that I couldn't find." Theseclass periods end on a high.

When we can find time, we reYiew the process: "What difficdtiesdid you have with your research?" "What worked well:" These dis-coYeries are shelsed, to be reexamined before the final term paperfive weeks hence

Meanwhile, we hate the plays to read and comparative papers towrite.

"Act I of Inherit the Wind for next class," I say, try ing to get thegroups to break up so that a waiting class can come into the room

Julia walks by me, her face flushed, her eves bright. Our eyesmeet. We smile. I decide not to say anything.

9 Talking about Books:Readers Need Readers

Adele FidererScat sdale Public Sc hookScat sdale, New k

Lucy Calkins (1986) tells us that the books she !menthe' s ate thoseshe has talked about Alan Pulses has said that it takes two to read abook. And Eileen. .me of my fifth-giade students, ic i ices. 'Doing abook report alone after reading is hoting Getting to wine questionsand conferencing about a book is a heck of a lot mot e interesting'cause You can do it with another person

The book conferences that Eileen mentions take place in my fifth-grade classroom after two or more students have read the samebook. My students. like those described Nancie Atwell (1984. )choose their own hooks, read them in class, write about their re-actions to the books, and then confer with me and with then peers.

In nn, classroom it is the conference, the colaborathe talk aboutboAs, that provides to readers the main mode of response andhelps them become active, critical readers. Through talk readers dis-cover what it is they teally think about a book. Christenbury andKelly (1983) tell us that "talkingasking and answeting questionsoften reseals our thoughts and feelings to us as well as to others- (p1). They point out that many of as don't really know what we thinkabout an issue until we heat ourselses talking about the issue.

Xm-hua, another of my stud( `-'ids that collabmathe talk doesmore than help her know what she thinks. 1-he ideas of fered byother readers expand het own \twin. She writes, "When you talkabout a book with someone wire has lead it, you and the person gheyour opinions about it. . When you disagree, you look at da bookin a whole new U<I1

Prepa:ing for the Collaboration

Questions and topics formulated in ads ant t. by students in 0 ide Ciestructure for the book conferences Although the ii.adeis ntas lease


the question structure at any time during the conference, they areguided into purposeful talk by the questions or topics they hay e se-lected.

The following scenario illustrates what I do to help readers writequestions that will encourage other students to respond from a vari-ety of perspectnes. literal recall of the text, personal interpretationsand reactions to the text, and releN ant personal expel iences. Domin-ique was the first one in the class to complete Do Bananas ClawGum?, by Jamie Gilson She wrote the following questions to ask fu-ture readers of that book:

Does Sam learn to read?

Do Sam's classmates stop calling him "Cutes"?

Did Sam decide to take the tests?

What did Sam, Alex, and Chuck find in the tree?Did Wally find his retainer?

Does Sam like Alicia:

Why did people hate Alicia?

Since this was Dominique's first experience with question writingearly, in the school year, she met w ith me for a "i ehearsal" con-ference to find out whether her questions would enco, age soconeto "talk a lot." She discovered that all of the questions except the lastone elicited "yes," "no," or a single-word response.

Together we looked at a sample list of talk-pros oking questions Ihad prepared. They began with phi ases such as "Why did"Why do you think . . . ," "What would xou . . . ," "What ifSome ended with "piggyback" questions such as "\811) or why not?"and "What makes you think that?"

Then Dominique thought of ways she could rev ise her questionsto help someone make full and Intel esting responses. Later, duringthe sharing time that concluded our reading workshop, Dominiqueheard other students tell about questions that promoted interestingdiscussions in their hook conferences -1-Inia had asked the follow-ing. "Would this book make it as a play: 1-1c-A, could it be done andwhat part would you wan(/' and "On a scale of one to ten, w hatwould you rate this book and why

Here are Dominique's revised questions.

I wonder if Sari es er learned how to lead How could helearn?

Talking about Books. Reader, Need Readers

I wonder win, Sam had a reading problem. What do southink?

Why did people hate Alicia?

I wonder why they called the book Do Bananas Chew Gum?

What would you have called the book= Wm=

Do you think Alicia gets braces? Would sou %t ant braces;

Do you think Sam has other friends besides Alicia andWally? Who?

I %solider if Sam ever gets fired from baby- sitting? Doyou?

Would you fire him? Why or why not?

After carefully recopying the re\ ised questions onto a 9" x 12"prelined oak-tag card, Dominique printed the title and the date nextto her name on a wall chart. This would let future teadeis of no Ba-nanas Chew Gum? know that she had prepared questions foi con-ference. Dominique then filed the card in a box and hoped shewouldn't hate to wait long for another reader.

Dominique's chances of finding another reader for Let book weregood for two reasons. First, I had ordered multiple copies of goodpaperback books for our classroom library. (Students can choosebooks from home, community, school, or classroom libraries.) Sec-ond, in the book-sharing time that concludes each reading work-shop, Dominique trie,J to attract another reader with a one-minutesales talk similar to the book commercial Jim "!release recommendsin The Read-Aloud Handbook (1982)

Maura thought that Dominique's book about a sixth-grade boywith both learning problems and gill problems sounded into estmg,and she asked to rcad it next. Finally the stage was set for the collab-oration.

The Book Conference

When Maura mmpleted the book. she and Dominique sat togetherat a table in the orner of the room with the questions Dominiquehad written Be t, it's important that the topics for the conferencebe meaningful to both participants, Maura selected the foul ques-tions th,.t most interested her from the set en Dominique hadten On the card Then. on the back of the card. Maura wiow threetopics or issues she wanted to disc uss with Dominique.

62 (,ollaboranve Learning and Literature Stud)

as oid a test-like tone and to encourage a dialogue, I ask bothreaders to respond to each question or topic that they're selected. Asthe tiro readers talk, I note collaboran.e behas.iois and the leainingthat results. (If I cannot be present at a conference, I ask the stu-dents to tape-record their conversations.)

Dominique WI) do sou think that Sam didn't learn, to read;Mauna I thought he ,s as traselmg around so much with his fa-ther that he didn't reins has e a chance to lea' n hors to read. Buthe ssas a whiz in math, so he caught on easils to that. but he real-Is didn't catch on camh with readingDominique I think . Me and Mrs Fiderer %sere talking aboutthat, and some kids hase dsslexut and spell backssards. He mighthas e spelled pot as t-o-p

In this portion of their talk each student presents her (Jun intei-pretation of Sam's problem. Mama has made a good guess, and Do-minique adds information from an outside source (ms written re-sponse to something Dominique had written in het lecture log) thatextends Maura's assareness of the main character\ problem

Doninuque WI). do some people haze Alma?Maura Because she ssas alssass showing off her glades, feelingthat she ssas the best at esers thingDominique YeahMa ,ra . . . that she knew es ers thing and she used big isords

Dcininique Yeah, I thought so, too She thought she ssas sosr Ian.

In he excerpt ohm e, Dominique and Maura agree in their Intelpret, non of a character "Yeah" is the .cord students use mist toshun. agreement and encouragement. Dominique intetrupts Maurain mid-sentence with an encouraging "Yeah.- Thes alternate'. «m-tri'mte ideas and together build a Luger portrait of Alic,a thaneither would has e constructed alone.

Dominique Do sou think Sam %sill !lase whet blends besidesWalls and Alma--Mauro 11e11. not set, but I think he sill get sonic when flies findout that he's nue or not. Ile\ alone because thes think that s

(hunt), but he's notDomunie Yciu knoss. t het e's Chu( k and klesMania 1101 probabls get ness friends

\o.%, stimulated hi Dominique's question, the !cadets ate «nlic.-wring Alan Put e, (1968) cites such guessing about the Intuit: e-

6 s,

Talkin,, about Boob Readers Need Readers 63

yond the text as indicatise of a reader's engagemc it and ins e-ment sith a book. In this case Dominique and Maura each predict adifferent "ending."

Dominique I sondes if Chuck gets fired horn babsating Wouldsou fire him:.Maura. [Pause] No.Dominique- Wh)%

Maura Ch. [pause] because he had treasure hunts and he didthings 1+ith them And it was fun, I guessDominique I thought I'd be a little sore at him because the kidsshould hase gone %kith him Like sou 1,110N% theshould'xe gone uith him instead of sta%ing b), themsek es So I'dbe sore at him for a while

Dominique's question "Would ou fire him'" elicits "I'd he sore athim," a response that Purses would see as anothel exainple of areader's engagement or insolsement with the text. The readershere, like the mature readers studied IA Purses, are reacting to theworld of the work as if that world were not fictional" (1968, p. 12).

This portion of the conference also illustrates setae of the lan-guage patterns that occur in kids' talk about books. Theii- talk is nat-uralit has the sound and tempo of reai soe.c.h. They pause, repeatthemsels es, and pepper their speech with "soh," "yo'., know," and"like."

They also use a kid-tc-kid languagespeaking in their own ser-nacular to interpret characters and actions. Here Dominique usesone of her natural expressions, "sore at him," to indicate annosanceor anger. In another hook conference Chi Bona called Fudge. theyoung brother in Tales of a Fourth Grade ,Voth tug, "a pain-in-thc-brut."John described a character in 77.- Black Cauldron as "a sloppv oldJerk."

The conference continued.maw() I'd like To talk about the spelling beeDom; inque Yeah

Marna And so I think that %,is Ruins Shen \lu ta «midi, t do ite spell murlarrluoo od

Dominique Yeah. I kilos. it ss as (wins I hen tall. runs togetherand thus laugh ] It sas hida the thirteenth. and I guess shehad bad luckMaura It was Frid,ix the thirteenth=Dominique Scab, teinembetMaura Oh, that's tight I hat as hm% \'1 hat did Sam gn butto spell%

Collaborative Learning and Literatuic Study

Dominique. Molar [malocclusion] or somethingMaura Ahc'a Isas ping people all hard sords [Alma and SamIsere captains of the team for the spelling bee]. and he gas e herone she couldn't spell.Dominique Well, she forgot one letter. Fttdas the thirteenthmust hate pen her bad luck.Maura. Then she gas e him "cute- and he couldn't spell it. Hecouldn't spell it because he had a reading problem andThrminup o [Inter rupt mg] And es et body stai ted calling him"Cures" because he couldn't spell that.

In the talk abose. Dominique nudges Maura's memory, attempt-ing to supply her with facts that Maura forgot. My students do thisregularly for each other in book talks, just as my ft tends and I dosshen ue try to recall the details of a book ue'se shared. Laughter isfrequent, too.

Not esery question leads to insolsed discussion, I discosered. It'seasy to recognize the perfunctory responses. talk doesn't bounceback and forth, nor do the readers lease the questioning structure.On the other hand, uhen th° topic means something to one of thereaders (usually the one ssho introduces it), the talk sparks. Eachreader rushes to say something, and often one c9mpletes a sentencethe other has begun. This kind of talk has the sound of passion.

For an example of this talk, sse lease Dominique and Maura for amoment to join Danny and Michael. ssho are discussing Taran Wudeny. by Lloyd Alexander. Danny has asked Michael to describethree important peopie that Taran met in The Land of the FreeCommots. Hits is a faith literal recall question, and it doesn't pro-duce much discussion But when Danny asks hos. these peoplechanged Tatan.s life, he fires up his oss n thinking Michael. carriedalong by Danny', excitement, becomes a one-man cheering squad

Danny' How did these people change 'I aran's life;Mu had 1 het helped him tt, !cam things that ssould help him inhis lifehot, to mot kle lot himself l'he PotteiuhtheOat make! told hintgate him a lesson that some things, souknot., are gifts, at. I some things, son just can't till. sou lustdon't has e

Dawn lake the Sssordsmitii he taught him a lesson likere-memberit took him (las alto rho to make a stsoid, and oncehe made a beautiful sv.ordMichael [1 men u wing] Yeah'

1 )annl he swung it against the tree and it blokeMu bad [ Intel i u wing) Yeah'

6i,)

Talking about Books Readers Need Readers 65

Danny . until at came out strong .

Michael In a way he's saying that . .

Dann) [Interrupting) . the was you look does not have anything to do with the way you are inside.Michael. That's one of the lessons the Swordsmith told himDanny. The Weaver told him that sou syease is likea person's life .Michael Yeah!Danny . . and if you let the string dangle, that would be yourlife.

Mic;iael Yeah, the Clay maker taught him that a gift you can'tmake; it's born with you

Meanwhile, their conference oYer. Nlaura and Dominique walk to-gether to a large chat t titled "Readers Discuss Books." In one of theblank spaces next to Maura's name Dominique pencils in the booktide, her own initials, and the date. They replace the question cardin the file box, where it will await the next reader of their book.

Dominique and Maura have helped each other comprehend, ana-lye_ and enjoy a book. Neither could ha-.e done it alone. It takestwo to read a book.

References

Alexander, 1. 1969. The Black Cauldron Nev, Yol k 1h11. 1969 Taran It anderei Ness York Holt, Rinehart and Winston

Ao%ell. N. 198-1 Wining and Wading Litetature ham the Ihstde Out Lan-guage Ails 6]. 240-52.

Isluine, J. 1986 Tales of a Fourth 6,4 de Not ling Neu Yot k. DellCalkins, I.. NI 1986 The Ail o/ Teach ng it wing Pot t s mon t h. N H

Heinemann.Christenbury, and P P hells 1983 Questioning .1 Path to Cidual Think-

ing Urbana. III . National Cou+xtl of Feat bei s of EnglishGilson.] 1980 Do Bananas Chia XesN York Loth' op, Lee & Shepaid

Books.

Put %es. A C , vitli V Rippere 1068 I'einents of it about a Liietar,1Woik Ur bana. III National Count n of heat hem s of English.

1 release, J 1982 The Read-Aloud Handbook Nev, Nom k Penguin Pt ess.

6C)

10 Group Presentations of Poetry

Muriel MiamiUniversity of California, Santa Barbara

Whine\ er our ie%% of the thew of collaborative learning, those ofus cyho hate used group methods to further our teaching of com-position or of understanding of a text knots the '.aloe of small-groupediting and discussion foi increasing student competence and fordeYeloping more independent yyorlong habits. My most successfuland significant use of student groups has been achieYed throughputting the students in charge of the classnot merely tun-king to-gether but actually becoming teacheis. Iii ril), freshman Englishclasses, it is common for students to present scenes from plays in thefreshman English program. less common is the presentation ofpoems by one or ;LYN° students (except occasionally in more adancedclasses). Usirg the latter technique, I ha\ e successfully giy en OY

the class to my students through a series of group presentations ofpoetry tha: fulfill several objectnes in the freshman cm riculum.

In the second course of the required freshman «imposition andliterature sequence, the subject matter foi the ten-yyeek quarter rs

equally dixided betlyeen poetry and drama. I teach poetry first, andI hate found that Robert Frost's North u/ Boston admirably series as abridge to Shakespedrc's poetic diama (a course requirement). Frost'spoems are fairly long, they are concerted dramatically,ally, mostly in di-alogue iyith occasional nai ran\ c conunents, and the offer, in spite

f their difficulty, sonic innuedi itch, accessible and comprehensiblehui.in situations that students an tin,k1 stand and yet be extendedby Frost's compassionate pci ceptio,is of nusunclei standing and con-flict betly cell men and scomen and betyyeen (Id fel ent social classesare as thong! -pro\ oki as an, c olitemporai t n erral on sexualand societal roles. And the puiiles cleated bY the tautness of the di-aiogue stimulate student discussion and group stuck. I he poi insalso pros ide a per feci s chicle for group presentation


Group Presentation Structure

I set up the poetry discussion and studs as follows. ea( h group willhas e one poem to work ss ith. As far as possible. students ale as-signed to groups according to the number of sources in the poem(Occasionally, in a monologue or lopsided dialogue, students shareone part.) I choose the group membeis self to try to balance skillsthe students has e already demor.saated in reading aloud, respond-ing in class discussion, and catching on to poems with more subtlepersonality factors that might affect group action. Foi example, twoshy people may work well together if they are intelligent and capable, and they may help each other more than a timid person pairedwith a brash and dominating one. Howes er, since the class has beenmeeting for only two %seeks when I make the assignment, a gooddeal must be left to chance, and as always, chance ssorks both foraryl against the project in about equal proportions.

I ask the students to read ahead and to indicate their preferencesamong the poems, but often they forget our then choices seem ap-ps so I temper then pm efeienics with my judgment of theirabilities Some students are angry at 111 c hoies, but anger has itsuses. it is a strong respons,--infinitely more useful than indif-ference and it usually leads to cqualls strong discoseries of interestand enjosment. I do not assign the parts. I lease this up to thegroup, since the negotiating that takes place between students whowant to read an unsuitable part and those who base mole sense ofthe whole is part of the learning.

The students are pros iced with general instruction sheets thatoutline the task, including some quotations f rum host on poetry,brief explanatory comments on the book and its setting, and somegeneral suggestions about understanding the assigned poem, e-pay ing d claw., pi esentationmd deseloping qu.-stions to lead discus-sion. I %%ant the students of some of the problems with pleious classpresentations, and I emphasize the need for oup preparedness.Es en so, there seems always to he one group, especially at the begin-ning, that fails to meet beforehand. Fhe resulting tonfusion ms ob-1, ions to all, and such groups learn a humbling lesson about takingan assignment its instrucions seriously.

The students also know that their hugest palm of the quarterand pm (rabi) of the y ear (six to eight pages) will be an nubs idual ac-count of the process this went thiough urn fulfiiling this assignment.GIs mg luso cutions f i urn the beginning about the ss i lung assignmenthelps to ensuie that students (all ti out the :Nulled preparation

Group Presentations of Poe hy 69

Further help consists of detailed sets of study questions on the in-dividual poems, which draw attention to clues the students 'Lightoverlook and to rails that are difficult. These questions may rangefrom specifics sty 't as -What sort ,f person !s each speaker? and-What do the first fifteen lines of 'One Hundred Collars' tell usabout Dr. Magoon?" to more general questions such as "What seemsto interest Frost most in this poem?" These questions ate notintended to be used in class though sometimes if the group is !ras-ing difficulty entering into disci ssion they may fall back on them.

I also offer to meet with each rm.,' in m% office for help with thepoem. Weaker groups often need this assistance. Floweser. the disad-vantage of such assistance is that it remm es the elements of surpriseand independence- surprise for me during the class performance.and i..dependent (even if sometimes muddled) understandin, of thepoem for the group

Finally, I direct the first class meeting on North of Bocton to pro-vide a partial model for the groups' presentations. We listen to atape of Frost reading "The Death of tr:c timed Man," and I lead theensuing discussion, having pre iousl% pros ided stud% qaesuons.Otherwise the task is up to the students

After each presentation I ask the class to complete esaluationsheets. The questions on the sheet aim at producing discu-sive an-swers that judge the quality of the reading performance, its ability tocon ve, tone and meaning, and the success of the discussion. Thesequestions are answered anonymously by the audience an:1 thengiven to the performers, who later return them to me (an IDr.umt er allows me to check which audience members have com-pleted the evaluations and how much effort they has ,acle). In ad-lition, each audience member is asked how much w k he or she

pt into preparing for me poem before the class pi estmtatiel. I heanswers are remai kably candid Thz necessity of judging presen-tation keeps indifferent students alert, whereas the mte-ested 4u-dents are eager to comment on the reading and the disc ussi.;,i.

The Teacher's Role

What is the teacher's tole in this protess? I reset c e the tight to enterthe discussion if it is weak, lagging, of wildly off «Anse. I try to playdes :s advocate, aski.ig questions tattle' than taking met the discus-sion. But I must play my part with car,. If I sit on the side ofroom, all h,ads turn toward me when I speak (one inherits the au-

C:

70 Collaborative Leaimug and Literature Study

thoritanan mantle of the teacher willy-nilly!). If I sit in the back, Iditert less attention. Obt iously, for the exercise to succeed, the less Ispeak, the better, yet some of the most likely meetings hate resultedfrom some group's bizarre readings that are a-gued fiercely by theclass only when I hate roused the corn age of a few doubters of themisreadings. For example, one group illustrated the power of astrongly expressei opinion to sway a whole class into ignoring e\i-dence by ently.mastically interpreting the congenial-though-rough-necked tray el:ng salesman in Frost's "One Hundred Collars" as athief. Thy :re only two dissenters, both too timid to push theirview wid.our my backing. This session was extremely enlighteningfor us all. I suggested that similar suppression by an authoritativegroup must often occur on juries, as well as in many areas of policyin politics and business.

In a more positite way, one of my most successful uses of this ex-ercise resulted from the attire responses of a tery intelligent, feistystudent who sat in the front row dud attacked nusreadings brilliantlyabout midway through each discussion. students noted in theirpapers that they prepared themseh es for her and that she keptthem on their toes.

The Values of Group Presentation

N)nat are the N.alues promoted by these presentations-- Fit st, the classalways discusses mote &eer than when the teacher is _harge. Stu-dents who will not speak, how et er gently I encourage them, becomebold and ai gumentante when their fellow students propose an intei-pietation. All members of the performing group ale forced to takepart, and some de\ elop sarpi is:ng pugnacity in defending theirgroup and individual views.

Se«ind, hating to pi acute reading the poem aloud det clops bothan awareness of wort s and r h) thin and an awareness of meaning, asthe following paragraph horn a student account shows'

Each time Samantha and I practiced the poem, we chs«Aeredsomething new about it We Icarned ho« to emphasire kes15 olds, or perhaps put more emotion into certain lines of seenon . I he pns.(al actions of the characters became mole ap-',mem, and I personalb felt that I was be«,01ing trit (hat ,ftter tosome extent.

Such inyolyentent leads to pet fot man( ts with dramatic and motion-al power.

,1111V

Group Presentations of Poetry 71

The autonomy of the group in choosing die parts and the methods of presentation also forces the students tin ough some delicatenegotiati3ns. The following are two examples.

When Tom and I talked about "The Code,- I did not pal ticu-lath agree with everytt g he said, but we really helped eachother in understanding the inchniclual lines. Es en when we dis-agreed on the meaning of a passage, hearing someone e'se'spoint of view helped me fo,-m my own opinion

Tin oughout this ex- naence, whether I was pei oi ming ormember of the audience, I think the key was that I was tomy ideas agar 1st those of my fellow students Sometimes It IS tooeasy to accept the opinions of your professors because of theirexperience and imposing demeanor, but with other students Soufeel sou are on equal ground Bs this interaction i was foiced toset utinize my own conclusions and rethink many of ms first im-pressions.

In addition, a strong sense of shared purpose des elops fromworking (and arguing) together, which carries the pod') throughthe nervousnessindeed in some cases terrorof performing inpublic. Some students have a crippling inability to speak in front ofother people:

When I first learned that we were going to haC to perfoim apoem for the class, I was tend-led. Reading aloud was such se-vere pi oblem that I repeated second grade At UCSI3 I basebeen faced with ry ay situations where it was mote «intim tableto be silent than to answer .. We first decided who was to readwhich part. and I wanted the easiest one. . I explained to mypartners that I did not lead well, but to ins amazement foundthey were not much better at than I Somehow the uncomfort-able knot in 11y stomach began to disappear and I ended up tak-ing on the parts of two different charact -s It is still diffi-cult to belie.e that after this one assignment at the age oftwenty , I am now able to pick up any printed mateiial and leadit aloud with a fair amount of ease. It has been a inapt b eak-through for me to overcome a long-lasting mental block

The liveliness and satiety in the class sessions keep the studentseager and intense. And along with has mg to state on the evaluationsheet how much they put into preparing to listen to a poem,they are motivated by a desire not to let each other downsince alistless, unprepared class makes a nightmare of the disc ussion lotthe presenting group. ("The class at this point in the discussion hadattained total brain death," a tueful student complained of a Mon-day class during midterms.)

9/ Colla &native Learning and ',iterative Study

One other adsantage comes from the additional requitement towrite a substantial paper on the group presentation and the poem It-self. In the first half of this paper the students describe how theyprepared for the presentation, which allows for insentieness in se-lection of narratise detail, humor, andamong the mow killedanintermixing of analysis of both the process and the poem's content.This narrative can includ_ a progressis e under standing of parts ofthe poem, as the writer lescribes the discussion among the groupmembers about the characters arid the plot.

By the time the stude its rose to the second half of the paper, adiscussion of the poem itself, they can transfer thei c,-rfidtnce inwrit trig about a personal experience to writing more analyNo's their ability to fined cue most significant and interesting parts ofthe poem competes with the need to gise some sense of the whole.They must select rigorously because by now they hase enormousamounts of material and a mere summary will not be sufficient. thelength of the poem and the openness of the topic create an organi-zational challenge that presents boredom with familiar material.

These papers are ins ariably more interesting to read and morecompetently written than short papers wrIttcfo earhu in the term,where the task was elucidation of a poem ,oncentr ating on some ele-ment, such as metaphor, imagery, or tone From their experience ina group of peers, and as class discussion leaders, the students knowtheir audience, the teacher has been only one member of a class thathas already largely shared and appros ed their ideas. The studentsnow have confidence from }rasing succeeded in a difficult task, andthe papers that follow are invariably more competent.

Advantages of the Collaboration Process

How much hase he tudents leatned about leading a poem? Get-tamly they hase come up with less comp ehensrse detail about thepoem itself than would earAge In a class discussion that I direct,since my indisidual experience in reading poems is probably muchgreater than all of then s combined. Howeset , sy hat they haselearned from their disc ussions will stick. The knowledge theirown, and the sast impurity of students speak proudly in their papersof "our" or "my" poem. 1 he weaker students, especially , describethe lesel of understanding they hase l cached as much greater Wanthat from ordinary class discussion. While the teacher may raisewore issues and seek a mote elaborate reading through class discus-

Group Presentations of Poe 1r) 73

sion, I suspect that far less is absorbed c» retained tha'i what the stu-dents gain from their shared inquiry . As Ki aft (1985) notes, "Stu-dents learn most permanently and with most pleasure in concer twith other students . . landl in an atmosphere of high feeling. en-thusiasm, joy e 2n anger" (p. 152) There is a delight expressed byso many stu, its about understanding "their" poem, and a sense ofaccomplishment that is only partly equaled later in the term by suc-cessful performances of scenes from Shakespeare (for that requiresacting skills of a different order, which many students do not pos-sess). "I did it myself "is the underlying message of their papers, andthat is clearly accurate, even though the inch\ idual success resultsfrom collaboration. In the end, I am sure they remember and un-derstand far more than they do when I puney infortm.tion" dur-irtg discussion.

Another ad' am, ge of the collaboratie learning assignmentcomes from the requirement to complete a series of steps, conclud-ing with a written report that has bun seen as an end from the Yenbeginning. The %%ork is carried out to completion mer severalweeks, is divided into clearly delineated stages, and contains within ita condensed experience of all the objectives of the course. to learnmore about how to read poetry, to become conscious of the sound ofpoetry by reading it aloud, to discover some of the principles of dra-matic structure, and to experience the force of dr ,natic dialogue.Further, my students learn that all inquiry depends on cooperationwith othersbuilding upon their ideas through a collaborative pro-cessand, Yen significantly, that the best way to conclude a train ofthought is with a measured piece of writing.

The dangers that iy underlie the theory and practice of collab-orative learning rest in emphasizing consensus, which, as KennethBruffee (1984) acknowledges, may result in c forma), anti-intellectualism, intimidation, and leveling -down of quality" (p. 652).Group judgment may overwhelm the ouly brilliant innovator, theone who has the potential to emerge from the group and becomeone t)f the few w h, ill influence and change not iust the group'sthinking but potentially the thinkine, of the "interpretive communi-ty" or even that of the larger society. Do such minds dominate thegroup and thus nullify the concept of collaboration, 01 are they in-stead crushed by the process of "intellectual negotiation"? I believethat the multifaceted nature of the group task I set allows for, ande'en et. mirages, individual hrilhance as well as the generative ef-fects of group negotiation and cooperation. "1-he 111(11.1(111,11 perfor-mant es and papers vary greatly in quality, with wine readers show-

ZEIMMPliMINO

7 ,,

Collalnirata,o Lew lung and Litriattoe Stud

Mg exquisite awareness of eYer. uuance of language .ind feelingmaking dear that then wasp of the mateiial Opel ates at a CI dif-ferent leYcl from that of then peers "I hus the w hole ,-xpeliencegenerates the possibility of truly imagmatnc effort iathei than a sti-fling of imagination.

Any collaboratie leaining auk ay makes possible 111,111% of the ad-'antages listed above. I belies e that my classes athance the processone step further w hen the students take chaigc of the classroom.Haying to lead discussion forces them to take responsibility for whatthey think and say. It gives them invaluable experience in speakingout in front of a highly critical (though basically SNMp tthenc) audi-ence. The whole process etches into their minds the 'clue of collab-oration and the subtle interchanges of negotiationnot only on apersonal leY el but as a means for establishing competence in thestuc:y of literature and for becoming noice membeis of an .11cIdti11-lc group or "discourse community.- The expel ience a:.,o illustratesto them th advantages of taking risks, standing up for what they be-lieve, reassessing strong opinions in the ligut of new (-vide e (whichdoesn't always happen in general discussion), and taking responsibil-ity for their own learning. Aboxe all, as the (in ec for of the SouthCoast Writing Project'. Sheridan Blau, has suggested to me, theydiscover that their own behaY on helps determine the quality of theirclassroom instruction. They nos undei:.tand that the teacher is de-pendent on the students' responses The collaborative wo1k of thesmall group is thins an excelle'a model for the intellectual proceed-ings in the classand. potentially, in the inmersitY as a whole

References

littiffee, h . 1981 Collalgq mixt. I (.0 r0:04 and Hit ( of Man-kind (ullet;P It3ii2

R. 1983 \mil/ 0/ BiAtop. Poem, Dodd. N1,,-,01Malt. R 1987, GI oup 10(100N lulu. S, mi.( t. \( 0%( (

leaching 33, no I 1 19"i I

\ site of tltt \ mai .itIng 1'. 1.1,, ,ot

Santa I utbatd

III Collaboration inWriting, Revising,and Editing

11 Getting Out of theWriting Vacuum

Mai garet B. FlemingUniversity of Arizona

In the "real world" outside the schools, writers often collaborate. Anexamination of any libran shelf, popular magazine, or scholarly bib-liography will yield a substantial number of coauthored yyorks. Injournalism, major al tides or series are researched and written byteams of writers, as almost anY, issue of Tune or Nf wsweek sill testify.TeleYision chosys are often the result of collaboration. In the busi-ness community it is probably more usual for reports to he vantenby' groups than by indiyiduals. a community college departmenthead reports that graduates of his institution often feel inadequatelyprepared for the group ssriting they find themseh es expected to doon the job (Spiegelhalder 1983). In the academic world, according totwo recent studies, coauthorship is also presalent. It is most oftenpracticed in the hard sciences, somesy hat less in the social sciences,and least of all in English departments (Ede and Lunsford 1985,Adams and Thornton 1986). Yet, as one high school teacher says.

Thai "urite on sour Own" business is a may)? fallacy The truthis that in the "real world- solo resision and editing are as rale asthe fisc-paragraph theme l'he onis place where solo compos-ing, writing. and re\ 'slim take place on a i egular basis is intspical English classroom In the "real world" writers brainstormideas together. refine their ideas. write di alts, vise their hips iosuperiors and colleagues to readget ;ill sorts of feedback f:-aalls, after lots of I estsion. a sec retars gets a sers messs cops totspe -That's +hen a "perfect impel- appears (Meek 1983, p

Perhaps the relatise inexperience of English teachers withcoauthorship accounts for the persistence of OR romantic notion ofindividual composing as the ideal

Kenneth Bruf fee (1981) one of the most eloquent adym ate,wIlaborative learning, irgues pet suasr el% that tea het s should cin-

77

ru7 Collaboration in Writing, Revising. and Editing

ploy collaborame strategies i., teaching reading and %%ruing to initi-ate students into the "con' ersanon of mankind.' And there is exi-deuce that ths_tse strategies are increasingly being implemented inyyriting instruction For at least the la-a ten Nears, the use of y+ rilinggroups in the classroom has been promoied (Graxes 1983, Hasykins1976; Healy 1980). Teachers haxe been urged to turn their class-rooms into communities of vyriters. Response groups suggest to stu-dent %%r-nets Yyays of impioxing their papers. Student editors lyoikyyith their peers on rexision and proofreading. At the many sites ofthe National Writing Project, teachers also are shaung their Yyritingsyith others in small groups. These strategies seem to he s%orkingery successfully. They foster the idea that syriting deserves to be

taken seriously, and they help e'en eery young children participatein the "conversation of mankind.-

In spite of the increasingly collaboratne pedagogy and the focuson riting as a process, holyeyer. the end product desired is stilloxeruhelmingly the individually authored piece of uriting.Gebhardt noted in 1980 t:,at most cl,,,,sroom groups are used to re-spond to drafts already xyritten by inc' .iduals. and although heurges broadening the base of collaboration in yyriting, I have seensince then very little evidence that collaboration regularly .:rnbracesmore thac. the proofreading and editing stages. The xery names edit-lug group and 7ekpon..i group suggest their limited function. Adamsand Thornton report that the reason most academic \Arittis under-take to collaborate is that their projects are -too large to completealone" (p. 25). Since many students regard on syriting task as toolarge to complete alone. perhaps e'en too large to start alone, itseems reasonabl, to alloy, them to take advantage of the kind ofhelp that professional vyritcrs arc not ashamed to seekcollabora-tion.

It may he difficult to moxe au ay from the notion of indRidualcomposing as the ideal. (Adam:, and Thornton report that e'en thecollaborator , they inter xie.Yyed s,,il behexed in it) One season isprobably that oui pedagogy has emphasued the inch\ idu theme,mdixidual correction by a teachei. and individual conferences. Butthere is no reason apolog;ie for collaboration. it is not necessaryto .Yrite in a xacuum If teachei, behese that then students can ben-efit from imitating the pi deuces of scientists. scholars, journalists,and business people there are xYays in xyhich they can deliberatelypromote «diaboiatRe .Yining at all stages of the process The fel-loyy mg re some specific suggestions. ,..cch of %%fin h has its counter-part in tne "real Yyorld

Getting Out of the Writing Vacuum 79

The Invention Stage

1 Two or more persons discuss an idea aria its possible development, oneperson does the actual unting. William Wordsyorth's works owe muchto his constant companionship and cony ersation with his sisto, Dor-othy (Manley 1974). John Stuart Mifl's wife, Harriet, collaboratedwith him even mo- closely, sharing discussion of the actual lan-guage as well as the ideas in his works (Mill 1961) Many authors ac-knowledge in the dedications of their books similar contributionsfrom spouses, colleagues, of friends. On a more mundane loch thissort of collaboration is frequently practiced by committees, whereone person is delegated to w rite up the consensus reached by thegroup

Even in classrooms in which mdiyidual writing is expected, stu-dents can profit from collaboration during the invention stage of thewriting process They can help each other asoid the ssriting sacuumby discussing ideas, approaches, and letails Such discussions, in ad-dition to aiding ssriting, also proside excellent practice in speakingand listening skills.

2. several writers pool notes they late collected and share them. Thisstrategy is especially useful for projects inyolying the gathering ofdata. Students may amass more material than they can use or mate-rial only tangentially related to their narroued topic. Spiegelhalderdescribes the "liyely interchange o: notecards and xero' copies (p.10(), that occurs in his class %% hen students are deciding on their finalarrangement for the group paper. At the university leYel, colleaguesoften share articles they wine upon that pertain to each other's re-search interest There is no reason that student colleagues shouldn'tdo the same.

A narration of this note-sharing technique that could easily beadapted for a class assignment was reported to me by two colleagues,both of whom attended a school board meeting to hear a debate onan issue of professional concern t( them. Both took notes for the re-port they were to write, but instead of ssriting from ti-m- (run notes,they exchanged and each wrote from the other's. l'hey found itcomfortable to do so, yet each felt that it helped him to see thingsf rum a different perspectrye and to include pupils that he mightotherwise Erase missed One can hardly insist on the trl h beingss ha.., he or she has witnessed if it is oiuradre by s hat someoneelse has also witnessed. Like historians anti Jour realists, my colleagueshad the task of trying to distill from then cfiffucnt accounts thetint h of r, hat "really happened.-

80 Cultabwrezon to It riling, Revising. and Editing

3. Part.apants in a debate write papers based un main tat generated inpreparing for the debate. This idea came from a conferenc. presenta-tion by May re Ferro (1984) of Saguaro High School in Scottsdale,Arizora. Debating, which by its nature is argumeritati, is excellentpreparation for the writing of persuasic e papers oa controy e, sealtopics. In debate it is crucial to haw- adequate support for every ar-gmuent and to be able to refute every point raised by the other side.The materials for a persuasise paper are thus ready at hand

4. One person writes a paper based on u speech or story heard from 3ume-one else. We one our possession of many great worls of literature tosuch transcriptions. For example, Homer, Socrates. Epicterus, andJesus are known to us only through the representations of their say-ings by scribes. Scribal collaboration was necessary in the days whenliteracy was the pi-ounce of only a feu. But even today many celebri-ties use ghost writers or publish their autobiographies -as told to"someone else. Students might emulate this practice by transclibingfrom memory a story or speech they hae heard from a certain per-son. Here is a way to get some fun out of Uncle Harry's perennialstory of the rabbit, or a certain teacher's fayonte sermon on goodcitizenship, the oft-repeated parental lecture that begins, "Youkids don't know how good you him. it. When I was young... ." Forthis assignment students should use the speaker's persona and, whennecessary, invent details that are in character The aim is a piece thatsounds like Mother or Uncle Harry or Professor Borer.

The Drafting Stage

1. Several writers dtz' de the work into ,thons, and cull writes one partThi, type of collaboi anon is frequently practiced by scientific re-searchers and bs textbook writers when the coauthors has e differentareas of expel tise For example, a colleague of mine who is good atnumber crunching" mllaboi, is with others on their research, per-

forming the necessary statistical calculations and writing the discus-sion of the results while the other person writes the more straight-forward portions. A fa. orne cookbook of mine has three authors,one of whom pros ides the recipes, one a discussion of nutrition, andone a Ira, !aux e of the friendship that inspires( the collaboration(Robertson. Flinders, and Godfrey 1976).

This type of collaboration. which I all the "c hunk" model, is easyto dapt to classroom use in any ,.ubject For example, in w lungabout a lac; my work. one student can be assigned ,o disc uss charac-

rY

Gelling Out of the Wnting Vacuum 81

terization, one setting, one plot, and so on. 01 each can resits', onechapter of a history book or describe one experiment in scienceSpiegelhalder's group research paper is another example of thechunk model. He deals more successfully than I have with the essen-tial final stage, unifying the whole. 1 tried this assignment in a classin which the emphasis was on content; it was not a writing class.Thus i neglected to stress adequately the need to write an introduc-tion and con-lusion; to revise For coasistency in tone, format, andpoint of view; and to proside transitions that would smooth the wayfrom one section to the next. Too many of the papers I receivedwere related only by their proximity to each other in the samefolder. (items 2 and 3 below, as well as item i in "The RevisionStage," deal with possible solutions to this problem.)

2. The coauthors are together during the drafting stage of composing andshare the task throughout. This type of "blended" collaboration is per-haps the most common of all and probably the most challenging.When coauthors are physically present in the same room, they mustdiscuss and agree on every sentence before it is committed to paper.They must be explicit about every stage in the writing process; with-out prewriting, drafting cannot begin, without revision, no one willbe satisfied to publish. If c oauthors respect each other's judgmentand are not threatened by having their suggestions i ejected oraltered, this met'aod works extremely well. I base practiced it myselfwith a number of different persons on everything from satire toscholarship to committee reports to a forthcoming book on collab-orative writing. It is a wonderful way to develop collegiality andcraftsmanship.

Blended writing also adapts itself V1/4 ell to class assignments, butonly if students have enough time and oppoituulty to get togetne:,either in class of outside. Last semester I gave students m a verylarge class the option of collaborating on their written assignments.Those who were most successful used the blended model, spendinga lot of time together working on then papers. Those who were leastsuccessful used the chunk model, unresised and unpolished, withthe same disastrous results recorded above inconsistent voice, inad-equate transitions, lack of unity For blended writing to work, collab-orators must be to ins est the time necessary to review, ii se,and polish their work, but the results are well worth it

3. Otte Witter non porates pails of the work of uri'rial uthe)s nito a largepiece ! call this the "raisin bread" model. A good eample is theeditor who receives mans letters from readers on a partu c:ar topic,

82 Collaboration in Writing, Revising, and Editing

then writes an article reporting the resuits, incorporating %%hate\ ersentences or phrases fr om the letters that are the most quotable.The compilers of reports from questionnaires follow much the sameprocedure. A class might create a composite essay or letter to theeditor this way, with several of the strongest writers doing the shap-ing. Since almost eeery paper is likely to hake at least one good ex-ample or striking phrase, the finished work will include more detailand mere eieid and effectiee language than any one person is likelyto produce.

The Revision Stage

I. One person puts together the thanks written b) several others, often in-cluding has or her own chunk. This is what Thomas Jefferson did forthe framers of the Constitution, what editors of collections do, andwhat committee secretaries do. My students would hake done betterto designate one of their group to proeide this service. In a class sit-uation, it might be fairer to hake one rrember of a group, instead ofwriting a chunk, be the Thomas Jeffersc . who puts it all together.

2. One person revises, enlarges, and updates the work of an earlier writer.The classic example of this model is E. B. White's expansion ofWilliam Strunk's "little boo'. :," written many years earlier, to produceStrunk and White's The Elements of Style. Some older works can be re-Used for fun and exercise. A few yLala -igo, one of my studentsbrought to class a little pamph!,.t written in the fifties containing tipson dating, dressing, and other matters of social etiquette. While cer-tain examples were dated, much of the ade ice was still sound, andthe whale thing could profitably hake been reused for today's teens.Works need not be thirty-flee years old, howeeer, certain works suchas school histories and student handbooks regularly need updating.

Another variation is to hake students reuse a piece of writing fora different audience. For example, they might adapt directions foran experiment from a high school chemistry manual to a sixth-gradereading Proficient writers could pro\ ide a real sere ice by ree 's-ing text materials for classmates who are ESL students.

3. One person reorgaiazes and edits a draft unitten lrs someone else Al-though some editors return to contributors any manuscripts thatneed major is I. hums, others (and I am one) make recisions them-A!iees. The usual practice of esliting groups is to point out problemsand make suggestions fur improvement, then return the work to theoriginal writer to revise. Romantic anheidualism again! It would be

8

11MiN,

Getting Out of the Writing Vacuum 83

eqt.ally possible for one student to take another's draft and revise it.Students could also be asked to look for examples of badly writtenpublished prose to revise. Often a letter to the editor will have avalid point to make but make it so badly that I, for one, always halean urge to rewrite it. Another source is fourth-ch ,s mail, in A hichappeals from various political and charitable groups predominate.These appeals al e usually 0\ ermodified, repetitive, and replete withlogical fallaciesin short, rape for rew riting Such materials are to befound everywhere.

As I hope these examples have shown, collaborative writing is a ped-agogical strategy that deserves to be tried. It can help reduce studentanxiety and build group rapport through shared responsibility. ThPdiscussion and interaction that take place at e ei y stage can promotelearning and retention by bringing the w riting process to consciousawareness And the unity and style of students' written products arelikely to be better than most could produce on their own. We do stu-dents a disservice when we insist that they spin everything out oftheir own guts, telling them they will always have to do so in theworld outside the classroom. Like so many educational myths, thiscne crumbles in the cold air of reality. Writing doesn't occur in avacuum; writers don't hak e to begin with a blank page.

Bibliography

Adams, P. G., and E S. Thornton 1986. An Inquir) into the P- zess of Col-laboration Language Arts Journal of Michigan 2 (Sp, mg) 25-28

Bruf fee, K. A. 1984. Collaboiatue Learning anU the "Conersat. )11 of Man-kind " College English 46. 635-52

Ede, L., and A. Lunsford. 1983 Wh) Write . Together.? Rhetoric Review 1(January): 151-57.

. 1985 Let them WriteFoether. English Quarterly 18 (Winter).119-27.

. 1986. Research on Co- and Group Authorship in the Professions A Prelimi-nary R, port Paper presented at the annual convention of the Confei Axeon College Composition and Communication.

Ferro, M. 1984. Presentation at annual Panal-Gila Conference on TeachingWriting, Central Arizona College, Coolidge, Arizona.

Gebharch, R. 1980.1 ean%ork and Feedback. Broadening the Base of Col-laborative Writing College English 42.

Graves, D. 1983. Writing Teachers ant' CIL:Mien at Work I xeter, N HHeinemann.

Hawkins, T. 1976. Gioup Inquiry Techniques lei Teaching Wilting Urbana, IllERIC/RCS and NC FE

81 Co !tabulation in Writ,ag. Revising, and Editing

Healy, M K 1980 Using Student V' '-ng Response '-oup. in the Classioom BayAre Wr..ing Project Public s. No 12., rkelev, Calif. Bay AreaWr.ang Project.

Manley, S. 1974. Dorothy and ti Wordsworth The Heart of a Circle ofFrze ;ids. New York: Vanguard.

Meeks (Jett), L. L 1985. Damn the Noise and Full Pen AheadOn In-ClassWriting and Editing. Arizona Englis4 Teachers Association Newsletter 5(March): 2.

Mill, J. S. 1961 Aut., wgiaphy. In Essential V't s of John Stuart Mill, ed M.Lerner. New York: Bantam.

Robertson, L., C. Hullers, and B Godfrey. 176. Lavers Kitchen Petaluma,Calif.: Nilgiri Press.

Spiegelhalder, G. 1983. Flom Darkness into Light A Group Process Ap-proach to the Research Pape% Arizoda English Bulletin 26 (Fall) 91-106

Strunk, W., Jr and E. B White 1972 The Elements of Style 2nd ed. NewYork: Macmillan

E,

12 Partners in theWriting Process

baron E. TsujimotoUnix ersitv of Hawaii Laboratorx School

T,0 second-grade girls. Karyn and Cat rte. weie editing another stu-dent's draft of f-iry tale while he sat with them They x, ere busy atwork with colored pens in then hands. This was the first time I hadseen 0% o students editing a papei at once. so I went Men to ea\ es-d. op.

Karm Does this make sense?Carrie Is he trying to go to the dragon in the nightKam, Oh, I get it He's stir liking about the Ismtdu Rot ce, toutforgot 'o put the ''k" rn knight.Came No let's ieiead this sent( .ce So the knight challengedthe dragon . Theie, that's better.Karwt Oops, he forgot the per iod at the end [Kai y n thenturned to Royce and said,) Rmce. but %mire doing a good job ofsounding out your %col cis. [Then the% tweet back to editingRoyce's paper I

Caine. Rot ce, voi should have uniten his name instead of satmg just "knight" in this sumKarm, But at least you told who the pet son ttas(Al, e. It's a nice "tot y.

As they left to 'sod, oo their own writing, karxn turned to Carrieand said, laughing, 'Do xou hoow ++ hat we forgot to check for:Pal agra

This semester, I am teaching xx ruing to four gioups of student;.,grades 2 through 5, who conic to MC daily fu; twentx-fix e-minutexxriting periods. The second and this d gi ader,, ai c grouped by gradelevel, and the fourth and fifth giadeis ,se mixed. The writing prograin is based on process writmg, in which the students go dirt ugndiffeient steps to reach a final prod tie At all steps of the writing

85

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Collaboiction in Writing, Reming, and Editing

prowess, they are encouraged to con ,ult with classmates. Becauseeach student works at a different pace and because the group aresmall, I have the students select who they want to work with at aveil time. Writing with others became run for the students as theydiscos ered ar..1 exchanged new ideas, re«rgiuted old ones, weighedpossibilities, and considered their own needs as readers.

Topic Selection

Topic selection is the first stew in the writing process. At the begin-ning of a new cycle, when most of the students ha, e completed thenpresions writing assignment, I present a new topic for writing.

The students also hale indis idual topic lists that they de' clopduring a class session. If a stuoent chooses not to V% rite on the topic Ipresent, he or she can choose one from his of her own list If stillundecided on a topic, the student can choose one from a friend'slist, or I will direct him or her to others whose lists offer interestingoptic s.

This sharing works equally well when a student want, to addtopics to his or her list; he or she simply goes 4101111d the rre m col-lecting ideas. Those still working on the precious assinareot .tidyadd my topic to their lists, and ir they next choise to write en thattopic, they will benefit by the experience of the speedier studentsworking on the same topic. noting the directions they ha\ e takenand the options they have created.

When the semester first began, I presented topics designed toelicit personal responses ("New Year's Re.,olution," "About Ms self,""Dreams," etc.). Later, I presented assignments directly related tounits in science ("Universe," "Stars," "Constellations," etc.), socialstudo-s ("Chine! 2 New Year's," "Myths"), and reading ("Fables.""Fairy Tales").

The following are sample topic lists, a third grader's and a fifgrader's. Wheneser Danny, the fifth grader, completed his assign-ments, he worked 18 ith contin ring interest on his list, which was en-titled "Things I Like to Do" (here in its shortened form):

Danny's topic list

Going to Castle ParkGoing to the beachGoi..g surfingPlaying sports

Bobby's Topiks

my friend Stevemy bad friend Andrewmy good friendmy enamea [enemy'

Partners in the Minor, Process 87

Riding my bikeReading my bookComputer gamesWatching t.v.Collecting key chainsGoing to the restaurant

my hon dance clubme and Roy

"II 'ugh Bobby, the third grader, had a short topic list, he ss rote sto-ut s about his lion dance cluo all semester longand his sun ies gt es,fascinating. With my help, Bobby compiled them into a book at theend of the semester. The follos%ing are tsko of Bobby 's stories, thefirst ysritten at the beginning of the semester and the second tossardthe er.d.

MY NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONBY BOBBY

Ms Net'. Yew's resolution is not to he afraid of the hon dancebecause sy hen I has a little boy I used to be afraid of the liondance all the timeBut not'. I'm not afraid of the lion dance Nosy I'm going to joinonly if I can do the lion dance. My mom let me Join but I donknot'. if I can stay in because I'm not good at Rung Fu.My lion dance master is thinking and he said to my mom, "Imight really let Bobby stay in." The past fey'. %yeas he had beenthinking about it. The End.

OUR LIONS' FUNERALBY BOBBY

On Sunday he hem to l'alolo's temple and he gase sonic food tothe old bons before they go to bed lot the last time. !his is a cer-emony V. het e the master bolus the lions because they ate tooold.Aftet they hem to bed. he got the drums, the bon's head andthe teasing mask. I hen he started a fire and sse burned the lionheads.When the lion heads ..,-re burning, the es chalk popped outAfter they born .!d the spirits (ante t,at Lach of the foot lionheads had one missing.That night the spirits came to my house hith the chums. I says

them floating outside the hindou It has so noisy I « old notsleep I saw the lions and it ssas fun When the lions hem home.I had good luck after all.The next day, one of the lions that carve at night dropped histail in the yard and I now have the tail ' t mi

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Brainstorming

Collaboration in li ?fling. Revhii.g. will Editing

The second step in the writing process is to brain:sun m ideas withthe entire group After I present the topic and lead student samplesor tell a tor about ms self iel,aed to the topic, f ask the studentshow the feel about what the .e heard. The either talk about thestory presented Qi n es 1. ee-taik- about what the, plan to writeAfter the} spec k, 1 que tion went tc, help them expand the picturesin their minds as the corisid,r possible details and , nuns thecan include. As 9ther students talk out then io as, we quickls ques-tion them in the same manner. When I see that the wont) is reads towrite, I dismiss those who hase definite ideas. 1 question the othersabout w1 at was discussed, helping them find topics inteiesting tothem

Brainstorming is an important step because ideas an:I details aleformulated, judged. and selected in the oven. Emulating the teach-er, students question each other, help each odicr deselop theirideas, and suggest to each °ther alternaties that would be interest-ing to include. In doing so. the practif e with otheis writing helms-tors that the will eentuall piactice on themsees.

Freewriting

The third step in the process is to bramstoirn ideas on paper e.,freewrite) The students wine continue usls lot about ten minutes onthe topic they hase selected. I tell them not to oil- about spelling.punctuation, and grammal. "ji.st write down oui ideas as quickl}as possible."

With some students, f reew ruing is sometimes mole (hill( oh thanjust beginning their fit st draft. The come to me and sas. -But. Mrs.Tsujimoto, ,:an't I just write ins stor because I know w hat I amgoing to say in ni head:" I tell these students that freessraing is op-tional and the can go directl to their fiist di aft. The following is asa' iple of a third -glade gill's freeraing and final quit (intermedi-ate drafts are not include:1)'

Dream,

nighunere 12.00 A M Lgoi hankenstinehem h tent 11111V.as Walloe Aloe

Heather Mrs Chong Mom in Grandma GI a nd pa

windows ins house !leathers house spent the night

Partners in tit: Writing P,o(Pss

DREAMSBY MALL\

One night, when in friend Ileathei spent the night, I had atughtmaie about Frankenstein and Ego' at about 12 On mid-night.

This is what happened It was night and I ssas in bed All of asudden I heard a loud noise 1 gut out of bed and looked in theIi ing room What I sass got le set s scared It was Franken-stein!

I ran to ins momms and packed our bags We helped insgrandma and grandpa pack lien we went to Heathei s house,but Egor and Frankenstein were there'

We went to the stoic and bought two tents One was for usand one was for Mrs. Chong and Heathei Then we went to thebeach. The tents had %%Aisle talkies Then Frankenstein camewith Egor. so we planted bombs and bless them sks high

Beginning the First Draft

89

In the fourth step of the writing process, students begin writingtheir first draft based on their freewritiog of they has e done one).Though the draft is completed indepenlently, mans ,tudents go tofriends for help, either wanting another person's reaction or seekingadvice about creating greater interest.

To facilitate sharing, I arrange small tables with four chairs eacharound the room. There are also nooks where small groups of stu-dents can gather to discuss ideas and edit papers without disturbingothers. The student' can sit anywhere they choose. Sometimes theresponsible students are allowed to go out to the patio or the play-ground to sit iv a concrete tunnel if they ask.

Completing the First and Successive Drafts

One of the most important times of "partner writing is when a stu-dent completes a draft. Here. the student needs another person ortwo to assist with his or her writing If two students complete theirdraft at about the same time, they pair up to edit each other, work.If one student finishes before the rest, I tell line or her to politelyask another student to help with editing

I teach the students editing in separ rte lessons. how to edit to ex-pand ideas, to dyclop sentences, to relate ideas in paragraphs, andto form complete paragraphs. Edi:ing tor giamniai spelihig, and

90 CcItaboratton to Writzng, Revising. and Editing

panctuation is the last step. While a reader , editing. the writer sitsnext to him or her, answering qaestions. listening to ideas, and try-ing to understand why corrections are being made.

Because this was the students' first experience with process writ-ing, I began 'heir editing assignment by haying them look for thewriter's 5 W's & H (Who. What. When, Where, Way, and How ).They were to apply these questions Lo any statement or fact thatbegged clarification. As a general guideline, the 5 W's & H helpedthe students edit for details and idea expansion.

When a student edits, he or she uses a colored pen to mark themanuscript, then signs his or her name at the bottom of the page.The second editor chooses a pen of a different color so the differentmarkings can be distinguished.

I do the final editing with each student, explaining why I makecertain corrections o: asking them to clarify a sentence for me. Inthis way, they learn how to edit. what kind of things to look for, howto ask other students to explain what they wrote in order to maketheir sentences clearer, or how to edit other students' work withouthurting their feelings.

In addition to receiving a grade for their final paper. each stu-dent receises a grade for the null ber of times they hale edited andfor the effectiveness of their editing.

Publishing

When most students are finished with their assignment. we hate aSharing Day. Everyone a:ready feels a part of someonc else's storybecause they haze helped each other, and they share a feeling of an-ticipation and prick the stories are read. During this sharing pe-riod, the students again make comments on their classmates' writ-ings. These comments become more specific as the students sharpentheir editing skills.

Son-etimes students enjoy helping each (AIR' so much that theybegin writing tories toge her. And another mode of writingemerges. students become coauthors, encouraging each other tocomplete their work and sparking each other's ambition. Also, muchmore discussion must take place because ideas need to be clear forboth to write. I then see freewriting turning into complicated mapsand outlines. The approach of two authors writing is also interest-ing. Some partners take turns writing paragraphs, while other part-ners work on separate chapters.

Partners in the Writing Process 91

Writing together is fun. Students shale ideas, help each other.and form new fliendships, making for mans writing and publishingpossibilities: a class book, a published iewsletter seat home to par-ents, a social studies report, or thank-%ou letteis and other corre-spondence. These are all student ideas and choices, and this indnid-ual decision makirg is perhaps the ...eenth and final step in thewriting process, resulting in empowered w liters who are interestedin nurturing their Own growth.

13 Monitoring Individual Prow essin Revision Groups

Mary K. Simpson-LspetRippon Middle SchoolWoodbridge. Virginia

From the first din. 1 had a good, feeling about the ritmg workshopI had established in my sesenth-grade language at is class' oom. I wascommitted to making a personal transition from being an isolated-skills instructor and composition assigner/exaluator to being a fellowparticipant in the writing-workshop environment in ms classroom.Es en during the first tentative &vs, as we wotked in revision groupsf "r the first time. my general impression was that we were learningand making progress. How eser. I harbored a .eat that since I was anos ice in the process approach to teaching writing and had only avague notion of what the signs of individual progress would be, Imight lose individuals in the group. I might become so caught up inthe excitement generated bs the atmosphere of exploration that Iwould not be able to chart the skills acquisrion of each of my les el-oping authors.

When students are not in assigned seats, a teacher cannot alv.ayslocate an indn idual immediately And in a writing workshop, wheiegroup membership is flukl, even poup. may be difficult to find.When you can't use a teacher's guide to evaluate a student's perfor-mance. the anxiety produced Ir. a workshop foi mat become', almostunbear?ble.

fo reduce ms anxiety, I ,n-eded to des clop a list of specific be-hasiors to look for as the students shared their wining in rex 'sumgroups specific changes in ms students and then is flung thatwould suggeg that I is as on the right track. I needed landmat ks thatwould assure me tnat we were all musing toward our writing desti-nations, not cirdiacr, a familiar tree of even doing a 180-dc.gree turnmid regressing.

So. I developed a tentative list of skills that I belies ed indicated in-dividual progress This list was not set in concrete. it would be modi-

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94 Collaboration in It ritmg, Revising, and Editing

lied as I lea' ned more each Neal about the tcachn4, of wi iting Butsimply haying something to begin with made it easier for me to be-lies e (particularly on bad days, ashen there seemed to be nothinghappening in an educational sense) that tomori ow would be better I

would search the list for some evidence of forward movement. and Iwould find sumethoig to maintain ms faith. Venturing off die beatenpath of inflexible lesson plan, teacher's guides. and large-group in-struction was a frightening experience for a nos ice, and 1 neeocdconstnt reassurance.

The skills in which I wanted my students to demon rate progressas they 'worked in classroom resision groups fel! into thiee broadcategories. (1) maintaining indiyidual identity within the group, ap-proaching the group with self-confidence, and establishingownership of the written piece, (2) using the ads ice/suggestions ofthe group wisely to improve one's writing, and (3) des eloping theskills of group interaction (for example. helping and supporting fel-low authors). In the list of skills, I identified, under each broad state-ment, specific student behaviors that would indicate to me that therewas progress. The quotes within the following list were transcribedfrom tapes that were made while students participated in group re-vision.

I. Maintains identity within the group. approaches the groupwith self-confidence. and establishes ownership of his or herpiece.A. Defends ideas and choice of development, si has action of

character. against onslaught of options "Strae people dothat." "He would say brat.

B. Screens responses of Decides which are significant:"I don't think :t would sound right." "I tried that." "1 canthink about opinions and maybe use them Von have achoice to use the advice or not."

C. Does not apologize becore reading.D. Demands clardicadon of comments. "I don't know what

you meant by that." "I don't understandE. Assumes control of discussion by initiating suggestions fin

changes in his or her own piece Recognizes and verbalizeshis or her own perceived weaknes,_s before discussion Ex-amples. Recognizes when all is not related to the main idea;says, "I need to rephrase 'hat." Or "hears" need for punc-tuation.

F. Invn-changes roles of creator and critic. Be,omes a writerreading as a reader. Anticipates readers' questions.

Monnuang Pu)gress In Revision (coups

G. Rejects or argues about sug,,,t_stions, including ems offeredbt the teacher. For example, I tried to git e a teenagedcharacter adult actions and motuanons I he author point-ed Out an error

H. Selects among possibilities.I. Modifies suggestions to create ownership.

J. Writes with ,, strong Dice.

II. Uses advice/suggestions of ¶11e group %%1st+ to impiote %%1 iting.Learns from previous experience.A. Correctslimproves piece based on comments.B. Changes real eent to imprme nari ante idea. Fictionalizes

reality. Demonstrates flexibilitt .

C. Appears open to comments. Sees that draft is not final.D. Develops respect for the reader, w ho is now seen as a sig-

nificant other. Communication become' important. De\el-ops idea thoroughly by anticipating readers' questions.

E. Brainstorms orally possibilities for altei limit es/changes.then discusses logic of each.

F Brei the; life into characters. Uses suggestion of need fordialogue. Lets characters speak for themsek Ls.

G. Bases idea for stop on personal experience. Writes aboutwhat he or she knows. Narrows focus to a specific mean-ingful aspect of an experience.

H Experiments with a ariety of genres and techniques. Suc-ceeds in previously unsuccessful genre.

I Anticipates the ending in the beginning or middle usingforeshadowing and/or well-planned plot de\ elopment. Ex-hibits story cohesiveness.

j Attends to word choice to facilitate communication of pre-cise meaning.

III. De% elops skills of group Interaction and itelps,supports otherauthors.A Responds to comments Nt tiling to be drawn out, stimulated

group.B. sreeiNes suggestions as support rather than druidism.C. fries ideas out on group members. "l'in lust talking ..D. Demands feedback Recognizes m hen thei e's not enough

Elicits comments from group "Should I put in . :- "Ineed help with . ." "I don't know how . ." I hat's hard! Idon't know what I could put.-

E. Supports an author's defense.F. Demonstrates confidence 10 Ills or het role of group mem-

() ,kJ kj

96 CollaInnation 1>1 Ft'? ItIng, Revising. and Edding

her. Asset is self in ps mg and t eceIN ing comments. Makeseffort to understand and to be understood.

G. Helps to draw an author out (for example, in a descriptionof a character).

H Argues with comments of group membeis, as well as thoseof the teacher. Genuine discussion.

I. Recognizes that each member has special knowledge, thateach is an authority, and that the members hake the oppor-tunity to learn frc m each other

J. Makes spec/pc comments to an author. Begins to see clearlywhat needs to be changed.

Teacher accountability has become a fact of our pi ofesstonal liy es.Des eloping a list of specific behay iors to look for as my students re-sised their writing enabled nit to be more accountable to myself, mystudents, and the parents of my students. Clarifying what I wantedthe writers to achiexe in their groups helped me to focus on indisid-ual performance and caused me to become a mot:: astute obserser.was better able to monitor the needs of the authors and plan instruc-tion accordingly. In addition, I had to be able to respond specificallywhen I had conference with parents about the academic dexelop-ment of their children.

I have learned from experience that parents respond moreposimely when my comments moye ft om the general to the specific.When J get to specifics, though, the more detail I can proyide, oftenanecdotal i. nature. the more they are able to share in the academiclives of their children and offer support to me in my endeak.ot tostructure a challenging classroom enyironment. Haying this list inhand, I felt more capable of monitoring the inch\ idual progress ofmy students a, they participated in the fluid ens nonment of a writ-ing workshop.

In closing, I want to share an anecdote with you that pros ided astrong signal to me that the wilting workshop was succe.,sful. Itoffered assurance that there was significant indisidual progress stim-ulated and supported by the recision- group foi mat. d it also pet-nutted me to glimpse the possibilities, the student potential to betapped, w hen wilting forms yhe cot e of the language arts curricu-lum

It was just an ordinary day in the wilting workshop --no cassette re-corder, no kideo--Ikhen "the shot heard round the world" was fit edin my Room-One Revolution.

Monnonng Individual Purim in Revown Groups 97

Alison had just read to the group her piece about a tragedy re-sulting from drug use. Gina, who had read Ahson's story pre iouslyand discussed it with her, blurted out, "Alison. I told you to changethe ending!"

Alison defended her choice of endin,s steadfdsds, an ending thatinvolved two tragic deaths. The other group members ouickly chosesides and offered their own opinions. It NS a, clear by the emotiongenerated that Alison had written a sery successful story esoking anemotional response in the listeners.

My only unsolicited comment during the discussion was to suggesta third alternative to the two under debate. The group members im-mediately and firmly rejected my suggestion, pros iding a barrage ofcomments regarding the inappropriateness of my idea in terms o:realistic character motivation and action.

After an extern:1c- d discussion of characterization, reader enjoy-ment, and an author's responsiseness to readers' opinions, Gina fi-nally turned to me (the first time my opinion was actisely sought)and asked, "Miss Simpson, wasn't it too much to end with twodeaths?" I told her that the deaths of a boy and the main character'sbeloved dog had hit me very hard; in fact, I had been shocked.

Alison looked at me, smiled, and said, "That's the reader reactionI wanted!"

And the debate began again.At this point, 'I'ammi raised her soice, got the attention of the

group, and said that she had read a book, Soundei , 1%, hich had alsoended in two deaths, the father's and the dog's. Therefore, an au-thor could choose to end a story in this way.

i-ss I listened to all of this, my head was reeling! These were middleschool students debating character motivation, the need for an au-thor's anticipation f reader response, and the author's ownership ofan idea; middle school students listening to a teacher's suggestion asone of many and rejecting it, middle school students drawing fromtheir experiences with high-quality liteiature and relating an ob-viously successful technique to the piece under discussion. I waswishing that the tape was running, that today's disc ussion was beingrecorded for all the world to see and hear. But all I !lase is my ownaccount and the promise that this really happened.

No one but I experienced any ectasy that d iy, any foreshadow-ing of the glorious future of writing insduction. I heard the openingshot of the Writing Resolution and was glad that 1 had enlisted as arebel.

14 Building Effective StudentWriting Groups

Jeffrey S. CopelandUniversity of Northern Iowa

Larl D. LomaxDavid Lipscomb College

The students are in writing groups, five students pt r group. Todayeach student has a draft of a "personal narrative" foi other membersof the group to examine. The teacher says, "Be constructive todayand be specific with your comments! Remember to use the commentsof the other group members when you revise tour drafts." Theteacher then returns to a desk at the front of the room, and the stu-dents are told to begin. However, after five minutes the teacherglances up (distracted by the silence) to discover that the students inthe writing groups are staring off into space or doodling on note-book paper.

Sot nd familiar? Most teachers who use student writing groups inthe classroom will notice students reacting tars way at one time oranother. However, this scene doesn't have to ire the norm when w rit-ing groups are at work in the classroom. Building `i'fective writinggrouus involves much more than just herding students into groupsof four or five and telling them to talk abou. a piece of writing. It re-quires a good deal of care and structuring. '.. lb also a fairly time-consuming process. but once effective groups have been established,the benefits to the students arc immense. Effective writing groupscan be built by leoding students through four rattual developmentalstages: apprehension, initial success, constructive criticism, and inde-pendence.

Stage I: Apprehension

Initially, for many students the idea of sharing a piece of v -lungwith other members of a group ranks right up dun e with memoriz-

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100 Collaboration in Wr iting, Revising. and Editing

ing poetry "Fo begin with, teachers too often assume that just be-cause the students are in the same class they will know all there is toknow about other members of the class. In many cases, nothingcould be further from the truth. they are strangers. It is essentialthat before students begin looking at pieces of writing they be giNena chance to get to know one another, feel comfortable w ith eachother, and develop the esprit de corps so essential to the deelop-ment of the group. For students working in small groups. these pre-liminaries can be iewed as the establishing of a "peer sharing eh-mate."

At this stage immediately after grouping the students and be-fore IA riting is examinedthe teacher should consider the follow ing.

I Be sure to tell the students n'/ they arc in writing groups andwhat will be accomplished ON er time by the groups. It is also a goodidea for the teacher to relate his or her own personal experiencewith writing groupsboth positike and not-so-positiNe experiences.

2. Res iew with the students the stages in the composing processand explain the role of a writing group at each stage in the process.One method of getting this across to the student. is to give then, atranscript of a previous writing group in action and explain how theactions of the group members helped the %%rite, move to the finalproduct. Another effectiN e method is to read a sample studentpaperfrom ores% riung to editingand explain how group mem-bers gave help or comments to the writer at each stage. The ideal, ofcourse, would be to show a ideotape of a writing group at work andinvite the students to question and discuss what they see takingplace.

3. Give the members of the group time just to talk to each otherand discover each other's feelings, beliefs, and attitudes. One excel-lent way to begin is to ha\ e each student complete Johanna Sweet's(1976) "experience portfolio." This experience will allow them to ex-plore the similarities and differences of the group members.

4 Most important, get the students in the groups to function as ateam. and have each group member demonstrate that he or she canoffer something to the group. You can achieNe this Ly holding « se-ries of contests or language games that require the students to func-tion as a group. Good material for contests can be crosswordpuzzles, word games (Wordy-Gurdy's, Hinky-Pinkv's, et, ), word-...arch puzzles, and other similar activities Give copies of the actii-

ties to the groups, and instruct them to finish the acre. workingas a team, as quickly' and accurately as possible. Fhe contest for mat

C

Building Effective Student Writing Groups 101

works well because the sense of in geney imposed leads to betterteaenyork within the groups. Points can be awaided for each ac-tivity, and groups can be green humoi ous pities for then work. ahandshake. ofd copies of magazines, certificates foi one minute oftutoring, etc.

Students are often rushed into examining wining before theyhas e had this opportunity to function as a team and to des clop ti ustand teamwork within the gi oup. A typical result is a group ofstrangers, each too afraid of unsure of him- 01 het self to offer con-sti uctne comments to a :ellow, write'. An indication of this negatestsituation is the sight of students slowly inching then desks awayfrom (Alms in the group and silence setting in How es er, if sou pro-side time for the groups to gel, it is much easier tot them to func-tion in the group setting.

Stage II: Initial Success

If you take care to e-,sure both a positne experience within thegroups and a measui e of success to the call), wiltings examined bythe groups, it will be much easiei to conymce students that writinggroups will help them in then des elopment as writers. No one typeof writing can be considered "easy" for all students, but some typesof writing, because of their nature or structure, can build in at leasta small measure of success in tei ms of "ease of completion." That is,the first fey% wilting assignments should be ones that the studentshay e preliously expel ienced in a positis e manner or those for whicha basic structure can be easily grasped by the students. Possible earlyassignments include a basic interyiew, a short report, a personal nai-ratne (such as a childhood memory). or a group writing with eachstudent in the group writing a shot t section of an essay. When thesewritings are shaied groups and the students see that each cando something with %%kiting, a positive foundation is built for the ex-amination of later wiitulgs. A few, of these syi longs might also beshown to the 1Shole class by 'say of overhead pi-0ra°' to reinforcethe good writing being clone.

At this stage it is also important to provide a structure for re-sponding to the writings because the students still won't know exact-ly what to say about them. This guidance can take the form of a sim-ple "Response Key "a list of questions th,,. the student. use whenexamining a piece of writing. A respouse key foi a pet sonal nar-rative mighl, include the folio',' mg questions for discussion.

102 Collaboration in Writing. Revising. and Editing

1. Ha\ e SOU expel ienced a similar event 111 y our ow n life: 1 ell theothers how it was similar.

2. Which section of tl-e writing seemed must y n id of dine? Whatmade it so?

3. What feelings did the characters in the wilting yy% flow duithis add to the writing?

4. As a reader. what were NMI thinking about at the end of thewriting%

Note that these questions are designed to pi odor e neutral orpositive comments The emphasis at this stage should be placedupon fostering discussion--not leading students to a unical explica-tion of the won k being examined. Ile initial response keys shouldalso contain questions that require a personal !espouse from thereader in order to let tne writer know the effect the writing is hay-ing. These responses help build a foundation of trust and shay hugwithin tile groups. which in turn makes it easier for students to dealwith constructive criticism.

Stage III: Constructive Criticism

Students soon begin to grope for something "inure impoitant- todiscuss about the writing. "Fills lets the tear het know that it is time toadd constructne criticism to the process. If. howeYer, the studentshave spent the last few w !flings giving nothing but neutral orposane comments and are suddenly told to shift to a ,one ci totalmode of response. the writing can suddenly become a jigsaw puzzlewith se' eral key pieces missing "The teacher can pro\ ide these miss-ing pieces by helping the students create a more detailed iesponsekey for each assignment. These response keys should be tailoied toreflect the aspects of the writing being specifically practiced and ex-plored in the assignment. Illus. if the students are studying a newmethod of prewriting, the L of transitions, or whatever, the re-sponse key should direct them to discuss those areas. One pitfallhere is limiting student discussion only to the aleas mentioned in theiesponse key. The key should not be the only source of discussion.On the contrary. students should be told that the questions will 5011ply proYide a place for discussion to begin and that they may alsotalk about any other areas they wish to examine (questions from (Al-lier keys, material fi ont lass discussion. etc ) As the students runeflom assignment to assignment. the iesponsc keys bedne less

Building Effective Student Writing Groups 103

and less important. Ex entualls , the students gain enough practicethrough using the al ious response keys that then become goodjudges of what needs to he discussed in any green ss r lung. Con-sciously or unconsciou,ly, they deNelop a Lurk detailed rubric to usewhen examining writing.

It should also be noted that it is quite common at this stage to findone or two students per group dominating the discussion. Fo makesure that all students has e an oppoi tunits tot equal participation,and to make sure that the groups don't cnd up discussing firth AuntAnita or Uncle Joe .n Nebraska, it helps to pros ide a few guidelinesfor functioning as <I group. Sample guidelines can be found in PeterElbow's (1973) H'ir'ing without 1'e-do s Libmk's suggestions includethe following:

1. Never quarrel with someone else's reaction2. Be quiet and listen (directed to the writer).3. Give specific reactions to specific parts.

4. Don't reject wnat readers tell sou. (pp. 9,1-102)

This direction w II help focus discussion and add to the posnie cli-mate being established within the groups.

Stage IV: Independence

This stage will often produce some surprises fot the teacher. Esenthough the groups still need guidance and writing instruction frontthe teacher, minty groups simph act as if they do not After all, sta-dents reason, they are seterans now and mini-experts on the writingstyles and writing flaws of their fellow group members. What elsecould they po,:sioi), peed to know: Sonic groups become doss mightclannish and frown upon any inteimption while they are working.(At the --,ame time, it is also possible at this stage for some grc ups stillto be gloparg along.)

At this s-age, the teacher's loie becomes that of a resowce personfor the groups and a "trawling wiiling expel The teacher needsto muse from group to group, answering :piestions and gn mg %%m-ing instruction as the students need it or ask fur it. 1 11,_. end result isa deiightful situation students who through group von k are now in-terested enough w ask about something to the wilting can ask thewilling and ready tea( her for assistance Ah,

Like any thing practiced V% ith legulam the ssatkshop process canbecome old hat to the group members A little liseisity flu own in

104 Collaboration in It'liting. Revising, and Editing

occasionally by the teacher (or at least plaune(I by the teacher) canpresent the process frorn becoming routne. Ile following are someroutine- breaking actisities that also promote the success of shegroups:

I. Hale the groups select one or two exceptional papers to beread aloud to the entire class.

2 Use selected papers as a springboard for brief discussions ofusage problems. For example, let one student's effort to use di-alogue lead to a short discussion of both realistic dialogue andpunctuation of dialogue.

3. Let group members with specific editing talents (comma hunt-ers, apostrophe specialists. etc.) take a class period to i es iewtroublesome usage rules.

4 With the cooperation of other writing teach( rs in the school,open the workshop class as a -laboratory class" for other stu-dent writers.

5. Use a day to put together a sampler of the best writing for amonth, six weeks. the semester, etc. Share this with otherteachers and students.

6. Use a day to do a few more of the word games mentioned ear-lier in the section on apprehension

Guiding student wasting groups through the different stages pio-ides a needed structLre for hot 1 teachers and students. The struc-

ture is needed because building successful student writing group ISa very time-consuming process. Howes er, if this guidance is grY en asstudents mole from irntial apprehension to the highly mons atedteamwork that follows, the results are well worth the time spent gn-ing this assistance. Directing the groups through the stages shouldreally he considered an nrkestmentone that pass di\ idends whenthe teacher sees the students musing to then full potential as writers.

References

P 1973 Witting wilhoal /rashers Ne.t, 1 ()I- k Oxford Unix ersit% Press'meet, ,J 1976 Experren«' Por (folic .111 Appr oak Writing Eng-

ksh Jon) nal ti5 (September) 50-51

15 The Group Paper

Corrine AlonsoTun School District'pros. Michigan

The thought of students working in groups used to terrth me. TheImage was of a disorganized classroom, with chairs in disarras, ahigh noise loci, and a teacher who appeared out of control. On theother hand. I had read mans articles that stressed the salue of coop-erative learning and explained how this technique encouraged acmeparticipation and student mon:anon. Thus. in an effort to allay msfears. I decided to obserse some colleagues who used group workregularly and successful!),. After nn sisit. I reasoned that theseteachers' clearly defined goals and good organuation allowed themto be in control of the groups and allowed the students to be %el.s in-volved in learning.

I decided, therefore. to use the "group experience" with nn sen-ior English classes. Each time i introduced a ne, kind of essa:.had the students w rue a group paper as a prew ming activitybegan with the persuasive essay, but the technique works just as wellwith the literary paper.

First, I have the students lead and discuss the introductm-s chap-ters in Sheridan Baker's The Pr (treol .tlbst, the text for the (lassThese chapters deal with narro., mg the thesis and the general or-ganization of the persuasive essay. Next, I gne the students a con-troversial topic and the engag,! in a general class discussion aboutthe pigs and cons of this issue. 'Ines also explore different was ofnarrowing the locos and forming a thesis on the topic All of this in-formation is listed on the board or prole( ted on a sc teen to pros idea database for the ( lass

\.fter discussion, the snide its assemble into groups of duce tofive (I form student groups in mans different w ass Son) 'tinieshae the students number from one to fne and group du-nisch esaccording to similar numbers. Others nines. I group them b), rows,

10_1(15

106 Collaboiation in Writing, Revising, and Editing

and sometimes I let them fot in their own groups. I-his part hasneser posed a problem, especially at the senior level.)

Once students are assembled. they discuss the thesis tiro wish todeYelop, the concessions) they want to ackno ledge. eild the [hoofsupon which the' wish to elaborate Next, the assign themsek esparts of the essay. For example, one person agrees to write the intro-duction and con( lusion, another the concession paragraph, and theother three the sapport paragraphs.

For example, if the students are to yy rite about the grading sys-tem, the', first haw to agree on a thesis. Assuming that their thesisfasors the grading system, tires next haxe to decide on concessionsThey may want o concede the idea that gn mg letter grades encour-ages students to work "just- for the grade and not for knowledge.Next they decide on at least three supports for their thesis. The stu-dents may want to des elop the importance of grades for college en-trance, as rewards for hard work, or ,.,s gauges of 'If-progress.They also hase to agree on the order in which to present theirproof. The person who composes the introdu_tion must complement the ideas presented in the hoc the pa-,Ier by composing aclearly defined thesis and suggesting the rationale that will be usedto support it This person must also present an appropriate summa-ry statement. If the students do not finish their respectne parts dur-ing the classroom period, they must do them as homework.

The next day the groups recomene, and each student reads hisor her part. (Group members should hase a photocopy of each para-graph so that they can follow along as students read their para-graphs aloud.) They es aluate each other's work and rewrite theirparts, adding transitions or making any culler necessary cnanges.After finishing the re% isions, students turn in the fintl product,which consists of sexc.i al pages labeled "Introduction,- "ConcessionParagraph,- "First Support Paragraph," "Second Support Para-graph.- "Third Support Paragraph," and "Conclusion

That eYerung, insteau of haling twenty -fise or thirty papers fromone class to check, I hase only Ilse or six and can spend more timeesaluatmg. I do this by making taped critiques of the cooperameessay s, being sell, spec iii about w hat is good or what can be inn-prose(' in each paragraph. I pay attention to wpm/anon, deYelop-ment, logic. and style.

the next day, the students again gather in yanous corners of theclassroom and listen to the taped ( 1 1 1 1 ( 1 ues. For this part of thelesson, I sign out fry(' or ix cassette players f rum the A-V depait-ment ) I pia; tic ( C..uui Cummings calls management 1)5 wan-

it

The Group Paper 107

dering around the classroom, "* and am a:ailable for further con-ferences if the taped critique needs clarification. Finally. I entouragethe students to rewrite their particular parts of the essay if too manyerrors surface.

Since this activity is only practice for the real thing, I assign onlyfive to ten points to each student for his or her part. The studentsappreciate the dry run. It gi%es them much more confidence for thenext assignment, which they ha: e to complete on their ow n andwhich is worth one hundred points.

Once I started assigning group essays, the indisidual essays im-pro:ed considerably, student confidence increased, and the kids ac-tually looked forward to writing. When I had them evaluate the class2. the end of the year, they rated this actisity as one of the mosthelpful.

I ha:e shat ed this lesson plan with many of my colleagues w hoere also skeptical about "group tacti, s." Many of them hate added

their own personal touch to the technique, but all ha: e found it asuccessful method that is beneficial to students and well worth thenoise and dishevelled classrooms.

Reference

Baker. S. 1981. The Praawal Stylist 5th ed Nest York Harper and Row

ITIP Workshop. 1 rot School District. Nosember 1986

16 Ensuring the Successof Peer Revision Groups

Edgar H. ThrimpsouNeff Education CenterEmory, Virginia

Peer revision has long been advocated by writing teachers. However,many teachers I have talked to, particularly those at the upper mid-dle-school and high school levels, have found that when they askedtheir students to work in small rev ision groups, the groups fre-quently degenerated into gossip sessions that focused on every thingexcept the writing. I believe that all teachers c, it have successfulpeer revision groups in their classrooms if the; will do three thingswith their students. First, students need to See a demonstration ofhow small revision groups operate, that 1,, what they can expect andwhat kinds of things should be happening if the group is function-ing properly. Second, teachers need to carefully monitor students'progress as the students learn how to engage in this important col-laboration. Finally, as the need arises, students may need to be givena refresher demonstration to illustrate how something has gone awryand why dm- ,s aren't going as well as they should.

The initial Demonstration

Of the three steps mentioned above, providing students with a cleardemonstration of what should be happening in pest revision groupsis the most complex. During my demonstration session, I use threesample student papers, two of w filch I will present here.* I tell stu-dents that these papers were actually written by college freshmen,though they weren't written by students in any of my classes. I pass

*The sample papers come from an insert uc presentation I attended seseral yearsago The presenter at this mecum; tells me that "what Cheer leading Means to Me'ssas snitch by one of his students a long time ago. %bile "An Embarrassing Experi-ence" comes from a book or other sour«. that he (an no hinge; trace.

109

IC


out the first paper, entitled "An Embar rassing Experience," to mystudents. I ask them to read it and then t o w rite a response to theauthor on the back of the paper, is If they ,y ere a teacher respond-ing to this author's work.

An Embarrassing Experience

When I were in high school we had -t football Banquite and Jhad not Ben to a fromer accesson Befor and I also Included ayoung lady along.

I were like the young man in the story we read in , lass.I came to the Banquite Poper dressed But 1 did hot have no

table Manner. Beryone Began to set down, I did not know I sir-pose to assn the young lady with char until she told me. afterabout 30 min they guss spoke Began to spoke & I did not knowwhen to Began to eat & after I saw all the other People eating Ilook around for my stherware, But I did not have any, then Itryed to get the water attanson. They fimly Brage me in siker-ware. I thought that were the lose embarrassment monet fortonight, But they had just Began. The main dish were chicken &It were fried cape & when I isit off it, it would make a loud noseand the other People would look arming at me & my date wouldlook the other way From then on I promer myself I would learngood table manner

After students have had a few minutes to read this paper andwrite their responses. I ask them to share what they 'N e written. Moststudents usually figuratively tear the paper to shreds,. criticizing theinaccurate use of grammar, the poor spelling, and the incorrectpunctuation. (Some student responses are more humane, especiallywhen they have preN mush beer exposed to the process approach towriting.) After seNeral students read their reactions to the paper, Iread mine, which usually goes something like this:

I Know what tt is like to be in su_h situations Fe been put inembarrassing situations many amts in my hfe

1. Why don't you write some more about what happened to Nouat the banquet%

Did people tab you laterWhat did your girlfriend Sit% to ou-,

2. Something else. Typically capital letters at e needed onI atthe beginning Of a sentence of ith pro: i nouns (a( trialnames of things. like Robert or St Louis) Go back throughyour paper and add capital lettets where you need them andremme them elsewhere

When I ask students what the difference is between my responseand theirs. they always recognize that I iespondcci first to the con-

C

Ensuring the Success of Peel Revimon Groups I

tent of the paper, specifying what I liked about it or w hat I em-pathized with. They also note that I made a comment aimed at help-ing the student to expand the content. In addition, they notice that Ichose only one so-called mechanica: issue, in this case a relativelysimple one of capitalization Through their observations and ourfurther discussion, students come to recognize that attacking an-other student's writing or pointing out more mot s than anotherstudent can handle only n 'tibits the p. .cess of working together toimprove their writing. I emphasize that they do need to be honest,but there is no reason that they can't he honest in a caring, helpfulfashion. I suggest they give feedback in much the same way theyhope to receke it. Finally, I tell them it is best to identify somethingpositive about the paper before filming on to items of issues thatmay need to be resolved during revision

Gr 'id Rules

At this point in the demonstration, I discuss some of the gr9i.:ndrules for working in small groups. I tell them that they must decideas individuals or as a group if they want their papers read silently ofaloud. I don't care which option they choose. It's up to them to de-cide how they want to share their ly ritinb w ith other group mem-bers.

I recommend to them that reading their own paper out loud, orhaving someone else do so, is a useful strategy. At every stumbi,ngpoint during the leading, they should make a notation in the text(or in a copy of the text). The cause of the stumble may be a simpleproblem, such as poor handwriting, but there may also be a pi oblemwith the wording of the text or perhaps a left-out word. Whateserthe cause, places w here the reading doesn't progress smoothlyshould he carefully examined later. I also tell students that as theirpapers are read aloud, group members are forced to pay attentionto the larger rhetorical ssues in the paper. Since they don't have theactual text in front of them, the members can't be distracted by sur-face or proofreading issues. Also, while listening, group membei shave the freedom to write questions they have ,'bout the paper l8ith-out interrupting the reading. These questions can be discussed laterwith the whole group and may lead to specific suggestions for reci-sion.

I do tell students that they can have their ()ape's read silently, butthat this approach can be time consuming and can weaken the quali-ty of the feedback given. For example, if every student reads each

112 Collaboration in Writing, Revzsmg, and Editing

other's paper in a round-robin manner, 1r, the time all of the papershave been read, es en if the size of a group is only three members,the immediacy of IA h3t each student t emembers from the first papermay be lost. I recommend to them that if they want their papers tobe read silently, they should bring at least two photocopies withthem so that the papers can be dealt with one at a time.

Role Playing

After this brief discussion of options lot sharing their papers, I askthree or four students whom I have talked to ahead of time (so the),will be at ease) to come up to the front of the room and form a circlewith their chairs. I tell the rest of the class to watch as we participatein a mock revision group. I play the role of the writer of the follow-ing paper, entitled "What Cheerleading Means to Me." I try to getinto the role of the real author and read the essay as I think shewould have read it.

What Cheerleadmg Means to Me

Ever since I can remember, I've always wanted to be acheerleader. When I went to my fast game, I was very im-pressed by the cheerleaders. They put spirit and excitement inthe air, and made the crowd come alive.

In the spring of my seventh grade year I tried out. Luckilyfor me my best friends sister was a cheerleader. She took sometime to help us learn the cheers and jumps that were required I

did not think I bad a chance of making it. but my high hopesdid not let me down. Malang it was one of the happiest days ofmy life.

I believe cheerleading has helped me to become a more re-sponsible and understanding person. I have been a cheerleaderfor the past Gee years, and was chosen arsity captain my senioryear. Being chosen as captain was indeed the highest honor, Icould have ever dreamed of and because I %as the leader I triedmy hardest to set the goal of perfection for myself, my squad,and my school.

One incident that happened my senior year, I bdieve showshow important cheerleaders are in promoting spirit for the ath-letic teams. Our football team had lost the past three games.Spirit and enthusiasm was at a very low level. Some of the stu-dents didn't e% en bother to attend the games. Seeing how lowthe moral of the school was becoming, the cheer leaders madeposters adernsing the games, sponsored pep 'allies and dancesWe tried to sh9vt the football team the whole school was behindthem md knowing this, encouraged the team to cry balder. Ourseason ended very successfully.

I ha% e learned that cheer leading is so much more than lust

Ensuring the Success of Pcer Revision Groups 113

wearing a uniform and screaming. I believe a cheerleadershould have three important qualities. .esponsibility, leadership,and personality.

Of course, students enjoy my reading of the essay, since I don'tlook anything like a cheerleader, male or female. When I'm finishedreading the essay, still in character, I ask the group what they think.They usually sta.t b1 saying something positive, and then roceed tomake some pertinent, osci ' comments. I resist everything they say,no ITIF how accurate. Aeei I've done this for a minute or two, Iask the .pup members how they are feeling. They say they're aboutto give up because I won't listen to what they have to say. Their ob-servations allow me to reinforce the importance of us..ening to whatothers say when receiving feedback. The students see that if they be-come defensive, the quality of the feedback will dminish. The tend-ency to become defensive is a common one for all of us. I tell themthat when my wife reads something I've written, if I'm not careful,we get into fight, which is really wasted effort. If I can keep mymouth shut and listen, however, in a short time I usually realize thatwhat my wife is saying is right. Besides, no matter what I think, Ihave to respect what my audience, my readers, tell me. I en ,uragemy students to do the same.

Before moving on to the next part of the demonstre I ask thewhole class to examine the essay on cheerleading. Vve very quicklyagree that this writer has just skimmed the surface of the subject andhas given us a rather flat picture of cheerleadins. As a result, thisessay could have been written by any high school cheer'wader in theUnited States. We all agree that obviously cheerleading is importantto this miter, but she doesn't give us sufficient detail to enter intoher experience. I point out how important it would 11,1.'e been forthis writer to hear the kind of things we are saying. Specific sug-gestions from her peers could have helped her to move her essa), ina more productive direction during revision.

Providing Feedback

Though most students learn rather quickly how to talk appropi iatelyabout a piece of writing, I suggest to them that as w i;ters and re-sponders to writing, we need to be sure that we receive and give twospecific kinds of feedback, reader-based and criterion -based (Elbow1981). Criterion-based feedback is the kind V* e usually associate withwhat a teacher looks for in a piece of writing; i.e., how the writingstands up against a set of criteria, such as focus, p ragraph de clop-

I a )

114 Coilaborahon in Writing, Reins mg, and Edding

;Dent, sentence structure, agreement, etc. Reader-based feedback is areport on what is happening to readers, moment by moment, as they.read a piece cf writing; e.g., "My mind was wandering when youstarted, but when you got to the d iption of what it was that wasmaking the terror rise in you, you giaDbed my attention immediate-ly." i encourage students to start with reader-based feedback be-cause reader reaction is critical to the success of the paper. Subse-quent criterion-based feedback then becomes more meaningful sinceaudience response, on closer examination, is frequs iffected orcontrolled by criterion-based factors.

Initially, my students usually have trouble giving both kinds offeedback. Therefore, before we move on to the next portion of thedemonstration, I pass out a handout called a Group ResponseGuide, and we discuss it. I give my students these guides the firstfew times they work in pee.- re..ision groups. Each Group ResponseGuide is to the one below. Each contains five or six questions,mostly reader-based, though I do include some criterion-based ques-tions. If the group is working smoothly, I tell them not to worryabout answering all the questions on the handout. I use differentquestions on each guide, though the questions generally addresssimilar issues. (The questions in the following guide were developedat Virginia Tech by Lou Middleman.)

Group Response Guide 1

Respond either orally or in writing (preferably both) to thefollowing questions as they apply to each paper:

I. What things do You like best about the piece, and why' arethey good?

2. Is there anything that doesn't seem appropriately addressedto the intended audience? What, and why not?

3. Is there anything that makes you say "So what?" or "Spec-ify!"? If so, put these word: in the margins where you thinkthey will be helpful.

4 In the margin, write "Say more," "Expand," "More details,"or something like this at points yy here you as a reader needadditional Information in order to participate mot e fully inthe event or the idea presented.

5. Underline words that are used Imp opelly and phrases thatdon't seem to "make English." Place question marks abovethem

6. How close to being ready to be turned in to a stranger lotevatuation is this piece?

Circle one number. not i'.!ady 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ready.

Ensunng the Success o f Peer Re-oiston Groups 1 1 5

After we have examined and discussed the items on the sampleGroup Response Guide, I give my soidents a copy of a student essaythat is relatively strong but still has problems that they can easilyidentify. I again assume the role of the writer of the essa, and thistime I I- ave more rationally. The students in the demonstrationgroup take their work seriously and try to gi ,e me useful feedbackon what I supposedly have written. After this demonstration we dis-cuss, as a class, what happened during the group session, includingwhich behaviors were useful and winch ones could have been orshould have been avoided. After this discussion, I give my students ahandout based on Ken Macrorie's "Reminders for Circlers" fromWriting to Be Read. (Bob Boynton of Boynton/Cook Publishers kindlygranted me permission to use this material.) This handout lists tenthings for them to keep in mind while they are working in groups,such as their responsibility to give feedback, the need to avoid be-coming defensive, the importance of dealing primarily sy,th largeissues, th need to locus on the wilting in front of them instead ofgoing off on a tangent, etc. I tell them to consider these items (Ate-fully and to think about each one in light of what they have observedduring this demonstration session. I remind them that during thenext class they will be working in peer revision groups for the firsttime, and that I want them to be prepared to use this time wisely.

Monitoring Student Progress

When students come to class for their first peer revision session,. Iusually take a few minutes to answer any questions they have aboutwhat they are supposed to do. I then divide the class into groups ofthree or four students and tell them to begin sharing their paperswith each other. There are advantages and disadvantages in alwayshaving students work either in the same groups or in different ones.Some teachers carefully consider who will work with whom. It's upto you to decide how to handle group assignments. I prefer tochoose the groups randomly at first and then make adjustments asnecessary after students have worked together a while.

While the students are engaged in their group work, I wanderaround the room, constantly obsery ing what is happening and listen-ing to what is being said. When a group is in trouble or when they'vereached a dead end for some reason, I intervene and give themsome suggestions to get them working again. If I hear a studentmake a particularly cogent remark about another student's paper-

116 Collabore.iem in VVriting, Rezncing, and Eliding

the kind of comment that Lan help them significantly revise theirpapersI praise the person who mad., the comment and suggestthat the writer might want to pay attention to 11, hat has just beensaid. After students have more e;:perience, I occasionally join vari-ous groups as an active participant. I don't do this initially becausemy presence tends to inhibit interaction among students. How e\ el,after they are comfortable with the group situation and hate gainedconfidence in giving and receiving feedback, they aciaally like andrequest my participation from time to time. As I work with thesegroups, I try to provide a positive model of how a person goes aboutgiving useful feedback to writers about something they've written.

Follow-up Demonstrations

At the next class meeting after the first group session, I ask studentsto do a five-minute nonstop writing in which they tell me whatworked or didn't work in their group I collect these papers, readthem, and give a summary of what was said the next day in class. Ialso give students some suggestions about at they can do to over-come difficulties they had. On the day bef,ic they are scheduled to11, ork in groups ag 7, I remind them of problems they had last timeand, if necessary, demonstrate in some fashion how these problemscan be overcome. I continue this follow-up procedure all year long,and a. a result, my peer revision groups never deteriorate too farinto something unproductive before I am able to get things going inthe right direction again.

Conclusion

Getting students to work productively in peer revision groups is .otan impossible task. If teachers show students what an effective revi-sion group looks like, constantly monitol student pt ogress as the)learn how to engage in such collaboration, and follow up on anyproblem areas they or their students identify, there is no reason thatpeer revision can't become an integral part of every w riting class-room, no matter what the level.

References

Elbow, P. 1981. Writing with Power New Yolk Oxford Unixersit) Press.Macrolie, K. 1976 Writing to Be Read 2nd .ftl Rochelle l'ark, N j.. Hayden.

17 Revising Response Groups

Marie FoleyUniversity of California, Santa Barbara

Most instructors have encountered students for whom revisionamounts to changing a word here and there, deleting an occasionalwordy phrase, and checking cursorily for spelling errors. Theiressays are usually drafted during an "all-nightez," and the revising,such as it is, takes place minutes before the final typing. By the timethese students enroll in college composition, their well-entrenchedrev ising habits need drastic revision. One could teach revisionstraightforwardly to the class, but in my opinion the best approach isto have students critique each other's rough drafts ia responsegroups. Nest only do such groups allow, students to practice revisingskills th., will transfer to their own writing, but, as instructors whouse them know, the group interaction can transform a classgenerating a supportive environment and raising the class's overalllevel of achievement. To my mind, nothing works as well to create asense in the classroom that writing matters.

Students with poorly developed revising strategies, howevt-, can-not critique each other's work effectively. For response groups towork, students need training in how to revise and how to critique si-multaneously. r' er the years, I have tried a variety of training ap-proaches, but none has effected the degree of change I wanted.What students need is a fundamental attitude change, because thegap between the way they revise and the way we expect them to re-vise enormous. In her article comparing the ley ision strategies ofstudents and of experienced writers, Nancy Sommers (1980) d-icu-ments this gap. The students she interviewed describe their revisingas "'narking out words and putting different ones in" and "cleaningup the paper," while the professionals speak of "finding the argu-ment," "tri sing apart what I have written," and "ask[ing] major theo-retical pestions" (pp. 381,84). A teaching technique is needed thatbridges this gap, that adically transforms students' attitudes toward

117

11

118 Collaboration in W7tting, Revutng, and Editing

res Broil and at the same time trains them to I espond of feeds ely ingroups.

Donald Murray's (1978) proposal that t'e resising process betreated as a two-stage processinternal resision and external res i-

sion suggested to me a possible answer. In his words, internal reci-sion is the stage at which writers "discos er and des elop what theyhale to say", later, during external recision, they "pay attention tothe conventions of form and language, mechanics and style" (p. 90.Though such a disision surely mersimplifies thew riting process, itrai,,es a possibility. why not establish two kinds of response groupsanalogous to Internal and external rex ision? For each essay assigned,students would participate in two different groups, the first to pose"major theoretical questions" and the second to focus on stylisticconcerns. The apps each would automatically delay the polishingstage and force students to res Ise in the root sense of the wordto"re-see."

These two-stage response groups hale pros en highly successful inall leels of writing courses, from Iemedial to ads al-Led. I call thetwo groups "work-in-progress groups" and "editing groups."

Work-in-Progress Sessions

At work-in-progress sessions, students diside int , groups of three toread each other's rough drafts and respond to them serbally and inwriting. As with all group densities, it Is sital to condat a modelingsession beforehand. I pass around copies of a rough draft from aprecious course and invite each student to suggest one question topose to the writer or one piece of Alice to impose the essay. Outof this discussion, we establish some ground rules. such as to empha-size the poratise, to be specific, and not to nitpick I enforce oneother rule stried-v--there must be no, absolutely no, discussion ofgrammar, spelling, or wor-d choke. Rather, the students are to thinkglobally about the rough draft, to ask themselves big questions: isthe essay cons 'ming? Does it need more information or detail? Is itfresh and surprising, or a rehash of the obsious? Does the writer'spurpose seem clear and consistent? Does the essay unfold ligically,or does it meander?

It is at this modeling session that I -ltroduce the question that tiesbehind all others"So what?" This question hits home in a way thatper plexed me at first, but I has e come to see that it serbalizes theletdown students has e felt but nests dared admit after reading anessay. "So what.'" implies that readers expect to feel something and

11

Rev's:rig Response Groups 1 19

to learn from what they read. they want to care about it. The ques-tion implies that writing is an act of communication betw een v% raterand reader, a transaction in which the vv riter implicitly agrees tomake the reading worthwhile. For students who have primarily beenwriting to complete the assignment, bent mainly on reaching thatfive-hundred-word limit, "So what?" introduces a new perspectivethat writing matters. Of course, I recommend that in their groupsthe students use a more polite phrasing, such as "Why did you de-cide to write on this topic?" But tie brasher version becomes ahandy catchphrase in the class, a kind of inside joke that helps trans-form the class into a community.

If, as Murray and countless other writers have reminded us, writ-ing is a process of discovery, it doesn't necessarily I. ,w that writerscan spot their own discoveries. Often w, hat is truly Jr esh, surprising,or intriguing remains untapped until another reader sees it. In theirwork-in-progress groups, students can be trained to discover what isvaluable in each other's work. To explain what I mean by discovering,I usually present the class with several especially dull, very roughdrafts from former students and challenge them to find somethingof worth, whether it's just the introduction or even the topic choice.To their amazement, they are able to discover potential in even themost unpromising essay. One student praises the detail in a para-graph, another points out good insights in the conclusion, and soonthey have put together an essay that excites them. This warm-upreduces their fear of facing someone's hopeless or uninspired essayand not knowing any way to respond except to mumble "real inter-esting essay." Students learn that if they read with the expectation offinding something of value, they will find it.

The process of discovering and of posing global questions usuallyrequires the discarding of large chunks of a rough draft. Instructorsshould be forewarned that student& resistancc to large-scale discard-ing is extraordinary! And no wonder, when for years they's e re-garded their first draft as a closed piece of writingtheir finalthinking on the topic. Old habits die hard, and instructors have topersist; it takes several group sessions before students feel comfort-able suggesting drastic revisions to each other. It helps to remindstudents often not to fall in love with their first drafts.

Editing Groups

In the second kind of response group, students work as real editorsdo in preparing a piece of writing for publication (in this case, pub-

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120 Collaboration in Writing. Revisin, and Editing

hcation .nears submission to the instructor). I schedule the editinggroups two class meetings after the work -in- progress groups so thatstudents have at least four days to revise their rough drafts and Ihave an intervening class period for writing instruction. In the edit-ing groups, students focus especially on the paragraph and the sen-tence and put into practice our class work on cohesion, style, anddiction. Tney spot where relationships need clarification and ideasneed amplification, where the writing is too obvious or dull or un-derstated. Again, I discourage mere correcting, on the premise thatspelling and grammar arc the writer's responsibility (although gen-eral warnings may be given, such as to check for fragments). Also. Ialert students that should the essay need major rethinking, they mayreturn to tne kind of global questions they posed in the work-in -progress groups.

Editing groups could consist of or three students, with eachstudent editing one or two essays, but I have evolved a more inten-sive and collaborative system. I divide the class into five groups, eachof which edits one essay. Thus, five students' essays are edited dur-ing the class period (allowing about forty minutes for the editing),with e.eryone having at least one opportunity to be edited duringthe term. Initially, I allow students to form their own groups, but if Inotice cliques beginning to form, I set up the groups myself so as tocreate new interactions.

In each editing group, the "presenter" reads his or her essayaloud while the editors follow along on photocopies. Oral reading,so vital to the polishing process, is one reason that I prefer the largeediting groups to one-on-one editing, the noise of five sin.ultaneousreadings is tolerable, but twelve or more would be cacophonousReading aloud permits the editors to digest the text more slow lyand, more importantly, to attend to the sounds and thy thms of theprose. They discover how much the ear picks up what the eye miss-es. The editors re+ond in writing on their copies, and then whoeverfinishes first begins discussing his or her responses with the present-er. Gradually all five editors join the discussion, which often be-comes quite animated as they compare their responses Since the ed-iting day is also the clue date for the essays, all students win in theiressays except the presenters, who receive an extended due date foranother revision. Thus, the r and for being subject to editing scru-tiny is the chance to turn in a better essay and get a higher grade.

Although only the five presenters receive the immediate gradebenefit, all students in fact benefit, not only through the reinforc--

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Revising Response Groups 121

ment of class exercises but more subtly in NN bat they discoyei aboutclosure. As students spot more and more possibilities for imprm ingan essay, they are less reads to call their own work finished. If theirclassmate's essayalready a second or third draftstill has room forimprovement, so must theirs. And though they don't in fact re' iseeach essir, to perfection, they are at least aware of its incom-pleteness. They begin to experience what Valery said about writingpoetrythat a piece of writing is hexer finished, it is just aban-doned.

Conclusion

The main benefit of using two -stage response groups is that theybreak up the recision process, forcing students to take more timeand invest more care in revision. These group sessions consume a lotof class time, in effect, they make revision the focus of the course.Students come to realize that recision is what writing is all about. In-stead of writing a single draft at the last minute and hurriedly cor-recting it, they produce a quick first draft in which they let theirideas flow, regarding this draft as raw material to be shaped. As onestudent put it, "I just try to throw together my ideas so J can seewhat sort of direction to take." And another: "After I write my firstdraft, I take a step back. What am I really trying to say? I look forproblems in flow, structure, style, and logic. Then I write 4 seconddraft that is very different from the first." As these end-of-term com-ments indicate, students esentually internalize the global questionsthey have posed in the work-in-progress groups. They begin tosound like Sommers's experienced adult writers, asking themselsesmajor questions and re sisioning their own work, esen before sub-mitting it to their peers.

Let me repeat that this turnaround Edicts time, the first group ses-sions seldom produce dramatic changes because resistance to changeis strong. Esen with the carefully planned modeling sessions de-signed to elicit the responses I'm looking for, I often don't st newattitude' until midterm, and fm some students not until the end ofthe term. But it is gratifying to see the changes take place, to watchstudents grow through these response groups into more mature,self-confident writers and editors, and to wutch the class develop amutual trust that allows them to Lc( ome a suppornye writing com-munity.

122 Collaboration in Wasting, Retaszng, and Edzhng

References

Murray, D. 1978. Internal Revision. A Process of Discovery. In Research onComposing. Points of Departure, ed C. R. Cooper and L Odell. Urbana.Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English.

Sommers, N. 1980. Revision Strategies of Student Writers and ExperiencedAdult Writers. College Composztzon and Communication 31. 378-88.

18 Project Write Start:Elementary and SecondaryWriting Partners

Kirsten Barfod Levinsohn and John KendallRutgers Preparatory SchoolSomerset, New Jersey

A pair of long legs scrunch under a primary school desk and pro-vide just enough room for a pair of much shorter legs to danglefreely. Between the two bodies lie a few pieces of paper, the focus oftheir attention. Alex, the younger student, is animatedly talking andgesticulating as Linda, his older partner, listens with serious consid-eration and, at times, amusement. She responds to her youngerpartner's ideas by sifting through ambiguities, encouraging depth,or laughing heartily. After further discussion, Linda begins to writedown their collective ideas, stopping occasionally to ask Alex a ques-tion or to clarify a point. The talking and writing flow.

About twenty minutes later, after editing their collaborative ef-fort, Linda and Alex proudly read their story to the hushed room.Responding to the applause of their classmates, they display broadsmiles simultaneously. A few other pairs of writers share their sto-ries, until the clock signals the end of the period. After biddingfarewell to his partner, Alex approaches his second-grade teacherstill clutching his story and implores, "Can we please do that again?"

Project Write Start began as a single joint IA riling experience be-tween John Kendall's eleventh/twelfth-grade writing class andKirsten Levinsohn's second-grade class, but quickly grew into a se-ries of flesh-and-blood collaborations as the year progressed. Theenthusiasm and creative prose generated from our first meetingconvinced us to continue with the paired writings. By the end of theacademic year, with half a dozen correspondences and four in-classvisits, the two classes had yielded a tremendous array of verbal ac-tivity and had demonstrated improved abilitie,, arid confidence aswell.

This project began with the celebration of Children's Rook Week

I 23


in November by Kirsten's Lower School* students. After the secondgraders read and discussed stories, created and "published" theirown prose, and wrote to their favorite authors, John was invited totalk to them about his experiences as a published children's author.

When planning the details of the %Bit. however, we realized thattremendous potential for a writing project existed in the combinedefforts of John's expository writing class and Kirsten's second grad-ers. Thus, as an additional spur to literary actiity, , we planned tohave the Upper School and Lower School students meet and work inpairs to compose a story.

Prior to the meeting, each second grader planned and drew athree-segmented picture outline of the story. The last drawing illus-trated the character's problem, the second picture demonstrated thecharacter's attempt to sole the problem, and the third frameshowed whether the solution worked. Armed with these pictorialoutlines, the second graders invited the Upper School students totheir room. The older students then acted as scribes, taking downwhat the young authors dictated, as facilitators, encouraging clearand thoughtful responses, and as light-handed editors, fleshing outan occasional wobbly thought.

The mutual excitement and ambitious responses delighted us. Al-though we circled among the writers, braced for numerous cries forhelp, the students barely requested our services. Afterward, theteenage scribes neatly recopied the stories for homework, while theirLower School collaborators illustrated the stories and bound the textinto a book. Feeling like budding Maxwell Perkinses, we displayedthe finished works in the Upper School and Lower School libraries,

ire installing them as part of Kirsten's permanent classroom li-brary.

Fncouraged by the success of the fall collaborative writing experi-ence, we planned other paired writing adventures. Al& ough Johnhad a new writing class in the second semester, Kirsten's seasonedleterans eagerly volunteered to break in the green recru;ts. Pro-ided with a chance to start from scratch, we expanded the writingpartnerships over several months with both long-distance and in-class writing.

To emphasize the fading art of letter writing, we began the classinteraction with a pen pal assignment. Since we had found that theolder students prodded considerable motivation for the youngerstudents, John s adsanced expository writing class introduced them-

*Lower School and Upper School t fer to du 'shins of Rutgers Preparatory Sthoul

Elementary and Secondary lirrtang Partners 123

selves via letters first. These were one page letters telling where theteenagers lived, what they did in their free time, and how they sawlife as sixteen-y. ar-olds. \he used individual file folders with bothstudents' names on them as permanent "envelopes" to ensure inde-pendence from the group and to initiate partnerships between thepairs of writers. Lower Schoolers began to embellish their folderswith drawings and doodles, and soon the teenagers began to draw inresponse, many of them requesting crayons or markers from Johnto compensate for being "underprivileged" Upper Schoolers armedonly with pencils and ballpoints.

The second graders eagerly and impatiently awaited their penpals' letters. They loved the personal attention from the older stu-dents; many would strut around the room with their prized letters,boating of the letters' length, a particularly fine picture, or one ofthe accomplishments of their pen pals. Their letters of responseoften imitated the letters they had received, with similar syntax,form, or expressions of speech. In many cases, apparently wishing toshow the importance of then on statements and to demonstratetheir growing writing skills, the seven year-olds matched the lengthof their pen pals' letters.

Since storytelling worked well in the fall, we repeated a variationof that assignment for the first in-class meeting of this group ofpartners. This time, each student prepared for the joint meetingwriting a story's beginning, which introduced the characters, estab-lished the setting, and described the problem to be solved. AlthoughKirsten's second graders welcomed their heretofore unseen pen palsinto their classroom with excited and nervous anticipation, friendlychatter soon ensued.

After reading their story introductions to each other, the pen palsswitched them with each other. Each student then wrote the middleof his or het partner's story, elaborating on the dimensions of tneproblem described in the introduction and creating a way for thecharacter to solve that problem. With much bantering back andforth, and a couple of fudge cookies for sustenance, the storiesbegan to develop interesting twists and subplots that their origina-tors never expected. The partners then returned the story's newmiddle to the surprised, delighted, and, at times, perplexed originalstorytellers. These writers then wrote the ending to the stm ies theybegan, and we concluded our first spring visit with the oral sharingof the pairs' mutual creativity. Kirsten added the recopied, illus-trated, and bound drafts of these three-part stories to her classroomlibrary.

126 Collaboration in Wri:rng, Revising, and Editing

Following two more exchanges of pen pal letters, we began an-other, more ambitious writing adventure, the creation of an"omegabet" (as opposed to an alphabet). We had already rejectedseveral topics because of unsuitability. Through an "alphabet;omegabet" project, the students would examine the 1,asic units ofwritten language and experiment with the :ery abstract ideas behindthe twenty-six letters.

First, each class read Rudyard Kipling's "How, the Alphabet WasMade," a fictionalized account of how, a ca:eperson in:ented the al-phabet, and Dr. Seuss's On Beyond Zebra, a model for mu own ef-forts.

Second, as a prewriting word-play activity, Kiisten gave her kids avertical strip of the alphabet and asked them to write one or twowords that began with each letter of the alphabet (e.g., "angryaardvarks," "bouncing balls"). Their Lipper School pen pals thenhad to complete the phrases us;ng an inverted alphabet (i.e., Amatched Z, B matched Y, and so on, as in "Angry aardvarks arezealous," "Bouncing balls are never yellow," etc.). We then taped thewritten phrases to construction paper, attached them to fishing line,and hung the alphabet mobiles from John's classroom ceiling in timefor the next visit of Lower Schoolers.

The omegabet arose from each second grader coining a new let-ter, drawing it, and inventing a new word or words that used thenew letter, just as Dr. Seuss does in his story. The Upper Schoolershelped the second graders compose a story imohing the new lettersand words. For example, Aparna made the letter "ahik" and withher teenage partner, Robert, composed the following explanation:

This letter stands for Miss A/Khookia doodle. It'sthe ancestor of archeopteroy (a dinosuar) it makes achicken noise. She has a very long tail. And a veryshort beak. Her feathers are purple and pink. Shehas turquoise wings. And the left of her body )s red.She likes to fly . . She drinks fruit punch. Si v._ ..as 3children: Mary, Cato! and George.

Michael cleated the letter "eeck" and with his Upper School part-ner, Joe, explained its origin:

An eeck stands for a dust swim ur Antal tica. Thisdust storm kills all the penguins whether good orbad. It covers sixteen miles at a tune. The eeck turnsthe penguins into carrots, not fancy carrots butorange ones. Eskimos. who would disappear ifcaught in the storm, come and eat all the cat rots thatused to be penguins

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Elementally and Secondary 11'7d:rig Partners 127

We assembled our fifteen newly irk ented letter s, complete with sm-ries and pictures, and prosided all Harty partner s and the two schoollibraries with our own version of On Beyond Zebra.

Originally, we had planned to end Project Wt rte Star t w ith thecreation of the omegabet. HoweYer, both classes had enjoyed the ex-changes immensely, and they pleaded for one more 'isit. Althoughonly two weeks of school rearained, we couldn't resist then enthusi-asm and used one Upper Schooler's suggestion of a car toot, sti ipcollaboration. We photocopied several pages of small stick figures invarious action poses from a how-to-draw book. Each partner selectedfour or five figures before the paired sisit, and was required to useat east one of their figures in the joint cartoon strip. We then re-joined forces a final time, proYided blank "story boards," and the fif-teen pairs of partners went to work to create cartoon narratives.Their humorous efforts were shared, photocopied nd displayed ona bulletin board; this allowed students and Yisitors alike the oppor-tunity for a good chuckle.

Throughout our many paired writilig a _try ities, the enthusiasmon both sides of the campus always .an high as a result of carefulplanning and the very nature of cooper atke learning. We alwaysspent considerable time beforehand constructing auk ;hatwould challenge both the Low;r Schoolers and, in a differ( ,a way,the Upper Schcolers. Kirsten would frequently "preurite" with herkids through reading stories, discussing ideas, and assigning relatedliterary' activities. John would explain to his students the mciall in-tent of an actin ity but would often usr_ the spontaneity of the classmeeting and the intensity of completing the collective assignmentwithin the class period to kindle interest and to proyide challenge.We met for forty minutes, which included brief introductions or ex-planations, a sizable block of time for co rosing, and then a ten-minute cookie break and oral sharing of tr., fruits of the students'literary laLors. John's kids .could then r ecopy the work more legibly,while Kirsten's students would illustrate the stories or make bookcovers for them.

Along with preparation, the other impor taut contribution to thesuccess of our writing collaborations stemmed fr um the intrinsicbenefit of student-to-student motis anon, inspn anon, and creation.Kirsten's second graders wee e the illed to see their own ideas takesuch form and length. For so long their imaginations had been heldin check by their slower and less advanced fine motor skills. At thenage, these students' ideas had always blazed ahead of their strug-gling pencils on paper. Now then more expel ienced "chauffeurs-

128 Collaboratio in Writing, Revising, and Editing

enabled them to translate their mental words into physical wordsfaster and more effectibely. The second graders were delighted tosee their ideas being accepted so readily by then older partners and

ere intrigued to see how those same ideas were slightly remodeledand polished to make for a more cogent and smoother story. Withtheir partners, they added descriptors, crossed out irrelebant details,and, at times, struggled to find the right language to create the de-sired effect.

Shifted into the role of primary literacy experts, John's studentsalso enjoyed and learned from the experience. The unfolding storiesand their younger partners' intensity often amused them. But theeffort of rewording without interfering, guiding without inhibiting,and teaching without preaching probided a unique challenge. Formost students, this was their first teaching experience. Many foundthat they had to resist the temptation to completely oberhaul theirpartners' stores or, at the other extreme, to igr 're the ambiguitiesand the inconsistencies because the literary faults were too hard toexplain. Often the older students' faces betrayed their difficulties infiguring out how to facilitate the mutual reworking of the piecesThe uplifted, eager, and trusting faces of their partners helpedthem to make that pedagogical plunge. Moreober, these attempts atguiding the writing of their younger partners increased the teen-agers' own tnetacognitibe awareness of what constitutes good prose.

In addition, many of the teens realized the mixed blessings ofadulthood through their return to an elementary classrooirr. Theylobed the nostalgic regression into childhood. they argued intenselyabout morning snack, demanded wide-lined paper c. d fat pencilsfor recording, and lobbied against censor :ap from the adult teach-ers Indeed, many tried on the shoes of censorship themselbes forthe first time as they tried to wean their partners from preoccupa-tion with Rambo, killer robots, and maniacal monsters (with onlyminimal success).

Perhaps in nine or ten years, it will be Alex's turn to scrunch longlegs under a desk in the Lower School, and he will collaborate with apen pal yet to be born. Some of his classmates will remember the ex-perience permanently, especially with a thick file folder of letter sand seer al class projects to remind them. Just as Linda's class maybecome more sophisticated editors and mole sensitibe adultsthrough the experience, we hope that Alex will still be as excitedabout writing as he wan, after the first collaboration.

Elementan and Secondary Writing Paitners i29

References

Dr. Seuss. 1980. On Beyond Zebra New York: Random HouseKipling, R. 1974 (1902). Just So Stories. New York. NAL.

1 ')1,.., ,,)

IV AdditionalCollaborativeLearning Activities

12,,

19 A Lesson in Rhetoric:Writing and PerformingTV Commercials

G. Douglas MeyersUniversit., of Texas at El Paso

There is no doubt that the television commercial has changedandwill contirue to changethe way we fit into the world. The averageyoungster between the ages of five and eighteen, according to NeilPostman (1987), sees approximately one thousand television com-mercials each week. We can safely assume then, that our studentsare well acquainted with this ubiquitous genre. While most Englishteachers lament the disproportionately large amount of time thatstudents stay fixed in front of the tube, we are also glowing in-creasingly interested in making connections between the TV "curric-ulum" and some of our own teaching goals.

There are many ways to exploit television advertising to improvestudents' abilities as critical thinkers, speakers, listeners, leaders, andwriters. A definite correspondence exists, for instance, between TVcommercials and any other piece of intentional communication thatuses language. Much contemporary theory emphasivn the rhetoricalnature of all communicationthat it occurs for specific purposes, inspecific context, with specific audiences and writer/speak-rs en-gagedand many parallels can be drawn between t'ae rhetoric ofthe TV commercial and the rhetoric of writing. Particularly whenstudents lack a sense' of purpose, or audience, or understanding ofoccasion in their writing and therefore grind out arhetorical "Eng-fish," the TV commercial makes a provocative pedagogical tool. Andhecause most students are already accustomed to i esponding pub-licly and collectively to the electronic media, TV commercials are a"natural" for group work.

The cooperative learning activity described here is predicatedupon several commonsense teaching principles: (1) that students cantake responsibility for their own learning when engaged as activelearners in small groups, (2) that the most effec tie learning takesplace when we build on what we can already do well in order to de-

133

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134 Additional Collaborative Learning Activates

velop new competencies and to raise consciousness, ani (3) thatteachers can best facilitate lea' Bing by articulating objectives specify-ing definite tasks and outcomes. This activity is also integrative- -bridging gaps between speaking and w riting, skills and imagina-tionand by introducing dramatic activities into the English class-room, it encourages learning that is creative and entertaining.

Implementation and Materials

By calling off numbers around the Loom, students are randomly as-signed to work in a group with three other classmates. This proce-dure mixes students by varying levels Ability and achievement,sex, and ethnic background, an arrangement that creates a "we're allm this together" camaraderie promoting the exchange of differentideas.

The instructor gi-2s the following directions:

Each group will choose one card from each of these three differ-ent stacks of index cards. Using the information on your threecards, your group will work together to write a script for a TVcommercial to advertise a product to be bought as a present fora certain type of person for a specific gift-giving occasion Youwill be able to use the rest of today's class to work on you'scriptto figure out what your product is and how you mightadvertise it for your specific audience and occasion It might bewise to have a recorder for each group so you don't lose track ofyour ideas. Tomorrow, each group will act out their comraei oafat the front of the classroom. If you want to use any props, youcan bring them in then Your finished commercial should lastapproximately one minute, and every membet of sour groupshould somehow be AINOked in its presentation

Each group chooses one card (folded, to prevent reading beforechoosing) from each of the following sets of cards (which the in-structor has prepared ahead of time):

Hypothetical Pioduct ,'Fames. These names are invented with a con-notative potential in mind, so that students can create whateverproduct seems appropriate for the sound and look of the word. Oneof the first major rhetorical decisions that students must make, infact, is at the level of word choice and st-Ile: what product could thisparticular name represent applopriately: Some of the HypotheticalProduct Name cards I have used include "Sparkum," "9.5,""McNamara's," "Onadi," "Ravot," "Le 3on," "Mariana," "Termo,""dan-dan's," "Fancredible," and "ZYX."

Gift Recipients. These cards identify the secondary audiences

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Writing and Performing TV Commercials 135

whom students must implicitly addi ess in their commercialsthepeople for whom the gift is intended. The primary audience towhom students are marketing their product is not the recipientsthemselves but people who buy gifts for the recipients. Students arethus presented with a rather challenging rhetorical problem, that ofaccommodating hierarchical audiences. They must brainstorm aboutwho these people re and what kinds of commercials might winthem over, inventorying the emotions and characters of their audi-ences and identifying the kinds of appeals and lines of argumentthat might persuade themthe stuff of Aristolelean rhetoric. Someof the Gift Recipient cards I have used inclu-2...: Mother, Father,Broth,-,- Sister, Daughter; Son, Grandfather, Grandmother, Grand-daughter, Grandson, Boyfriend, Girlfriend, Boss, Graduate, Teach-er, and Self.

Occasions fir Gift Giving. These cards suggest a context for the gift-giving occasion, the cluster of connotations and denotations associ-ated with a particular celebrated day. Students must explore thenuances of this specific occasion, since one main purpose of this as-signment is to create just the right pitch for the right people at the-ight time. Some of the Occasion cards I have used include Birth-day, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Anniversary,Fourth of July, Christmas, Hanukkah, Halloween, Graduation, Re-tirement, Moving, il-icl "Just Because."

Procedure

Having selected their cards, students work together to generatefresh material for their commercial. This activity emphasizes the cre-ativity and serious play fulness that characterize successful in-vention-al strategies. By discouraging the application of rigid rules(something that often disables poor composers), the commercial-composing colloquy promotes flexibility and the exploration ofmany rhetorical choices: together, students discover and create con-tent, arrangement, and style, as well as voice, tone, and point ofview. They come to understand the constraints of the rhetoricalproblem they are grappling with and the implications of the choicesthey make in sob ing that problem. They imaginatively and ani-matedly improNisi, trying out different solutions. At ..ne minute theproduct is defined as such-and-such, and the next minute it is some-thing quite different, c,;, a second, a certain advertising appeal isthought to be effective, and a moment later it is rejected for its lack

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136 Additional Collaborative Learning Activities

of suitability for the occasion. Because this is a group awl, ay the de-cisions are reasoned decisionsones that engage students m statingand defending their opinions about different rhetorical matters.

The variety of specific rhetorical problems is large, for students ineach group are involved in developing a unique communication. Yetall groups must focus on the same variables. content (the product),purpose (to sell), audience, and occasion. The group attempting todevelop a commercial aimed at persuading people to give "Spar-kum" to Grandma for her birthday is trying to accomplish some-thing identical to, yet different from, the group writing the commer-cial aimed at getting viewers to buy their boy triends "Onadi" for theFourth of July or their sisters "9.5" for Valentines's Day. Even whenstudents get a seemingly nonsensical combination of cards, (for ex-ample, giving "Rav ot" to Grandpa on Graduation Day or giving"ZYX" to Teacher upon Retirement), the activity works well becauseof the incongruities the students must consciously address in design-ing their commercials.

Sharing and Responding

Invariably, each group has great fun hamming it up in front of theirclassmates, performing their original TV commercial. Usually allcast members are motivated enough to know their lines by heart,and often props are brought in to make the sixty-second spot vis-ually appealing.

Immediately after each commercial is presented, all members ofthe class (including the instructor) w rite several sentences of feed-back to give to the group members at the end of the class period,commenting on the commercial and making special note of the suc-cess with which it made the invented product attractive to itsintended audience for the intended occasion. Once all the commer-cials have been acted out, a large class discussion ensues, highlight-ing the importance of audience, purpose, and occasion for any corn-.-nunication. Students now have much to say abut,. these elements ofrhetoric, thanks to both the new insight and the increased availabili-ty of prior knowledge that this exercise makes possible.

Depending on other course objectives, this activity can be used asspringboard for further group exploiation of the connections be-

tween nonprint media and written composition. For example. in-Aructors might want to address such topics as the types of reasoningand organizational patterns in visual and verbal forms of composi-

Writing and Performing TV Commercials 137

tion, the "grammar" of the z-,lectronic media ei sus the grammar oflanguage, and '.erbai transitions versus visual transitions. Haying en-acted an amateur commercial, students may be assigned to anal) zeprofessional achertisements, examining how they use different typesof claims, warrants, and eYiderice. Time might also be devoted tostudying how the scripts could be reused into effecuye pieces of ex-pository prose.

Regardless of what follows this cooperatie learning project, myexperience tells me that this activity, by itself, delivers importantlessons in rhetoric to students. It helps to sensitize them to issues ofaudience, purpose, and occasion; it emphasizes the power of usinglanguage economically (the commercials last for only one minute), itrefines their ability to make defensible rhetorical choices; and it en-courages them to talk to and to listen to one another. It may evenprepare them to deal more critically with the more than fifty thou-sand commercials they will view during the coming year.

Reference

Postman, N. 1987 Teaching as a Consenang Actwit) New York- Dell

20 The Sound of Music: AHarmonious Meeting of Minds

Virginia McCormickAllen High SchoolAllentown, Pennsylvania

Dust as we are, the immortal spirit growsLike harmony in music: there is a darkInscrutable workmanship that reconcilesDiscordant elements, makes them cling togetherIn one society.

Wordsworth, The Prelude, Book 1, 1 340ff.

Rogers and Ilarnmerstem's The Sound of Must( begins with the famil-iar words "The hills are alive with the sound of music...." And alivewith sound is just what a classroom is when a teacher undertakesgroup projects. Many teachers are reluctant to attempt group workbecause of the potential resulting chaos. But dissonance can beturned into harmony.

What evokes more dread in the hearts of English teachers every-where than having to teachnot assign, but teachthe researchpaper? Couple that monumental task with the additional require-ment of teaching it to the average-ability eleventh-grade stwient,and most English teachers query with a faint-of-heart "Who, me?"Always the optimist, I decided that since the paper had to be taught,I must find some palatable way of oiotix sting a class of thirty-twogirls and three boy3few, if any, of whom were planning to attendcollege. How could I convince them that they must write a r?searc hpaper as a part of the requirement for iunior-year English? While Icould simply announce, "Do it or fail," I chose not to because I want-ed them to cnderstand the process, and I wanted their research tobecome a worthwhile learning experience. After ruminating aboutthe dilemma for some time, I decided upon a solution I hopedwould be challenging and instructive. combine group work with re-search.

1.49

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Some time ago I was enchanted by the idea of Steve Allen's tele\ i-sion program "Meeting of Minds." For those unfamiliar with theprogram, Steve Allen created round -table discussions to which he in-vited not able guests. Michelangelo, Socrates, Leonardo Da Vinci,Catherine sie Great, Voltaire, Thomas Paine, William Blake, EmilyDickinson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Oliver Cromwell, the Em-press Theodora, Attila the Hun, and Bertrand Russell. A discussionwould feature three to four guests, each of whom was introduced in-dividually. Dialogue progressed between the moderator and oneguest. the two guests, and so forth, until each of the chairs was oc-cupied. At this point, some lively discussion ensued, featuring philo-sophical or moral questions indicative of or reflective of each guest'sera and culture. Some bickering. some applause. some guffawswould occur, but what prevailed for the viewer was a new perspec-tive of time and space.

Before I informed my students about the impending researchpaper requirements, I let them view an episode of "Meeting ofMinds." They became so fascinated with Catherine the Great's ro-mantic escapades and Oliver Cromwell's rage over his musical intro-duction ('God Save the King") that they were eager to find out howthis program related to English class.

Next, I enticed the class with a little theatricality. When they en-tered the classroom the next day, they found sealed 9" x 12" manilaenvelopes labeled "MISSION: POSSIBLE" on their desks. Theywere cautioned not to open them. As the bell for class rang, I playeda recording of the theme song from the TV show "Mission. Impossi-ble." Sufficiently intrigued, the students opened their packets. Eachpacket contained information about research skills: tune lines, proce-dures, footnote an bibliography guidelines, notetaking informa-tion, and general format rules, as well as instructions for selectingone of thirty famous people After I reviewed procedures and con-tents of the packet, I invited students to form groups and choose thename of a famous person from the list of thirty.* I explained thateach group would explore one famous person's life and times. Sec-ondly, the completed impels would be culled, and from them wouldcome a script for our own version of "Meeting of Minds." Excite-ment flashed through the loom. Students then grouped themselvesand each group chose a person to investigate From the list of thirty

*I would he 11..pim to shale these mate! Jai, with amone whn would to havethen! 11lity me at Allen I high S1 hool, 1701 and I milt i Sticeo, Allyntov,n, 1,1 18104

The Sound of Music. A Harmonious Meeting of Minds 141

famous men and women, the groups chose Pocahontas, ShirleyTemple, Helen Keller, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Linda Ronstadt.

Next I asked each group to complete a sure, detailing the namesof the group members, the name of the chosen famou., person, andother critical information. For this surrey, each group member se-lected an area of interest to investigate so that he or she couldbecome familiar with the person', life and times. the areas of inves-tigation included au'obiographicalliographical information, histor-ical /political events, medical 'entific/technological air antes, socio-economic climate, artistic/cultural endeavors, and current exertspertinent to each person and time period being incesugated.

Research

*Iidents began researching their topics and persons and soon hadaccumulated bibliography cards and note cards. After I checkedboth types of cards to make sure students were On the right track. Isuggested that each group brainstorm in order to decide how to ex-plain the person's life and times in the most reasonable and efficientmanner. After students had deised a simple outline, I suggestedthat they divide it into sections and that each person in the grouptake a section. Now they had a real challenge. Because most studentschose to develop their papers chronologically rather than is nar-ratir, e (the two forms of biography and autobiography we hadlearned about earlier in the year), they could not use just the notecards each one had filled out. They needed other information Inother words, each student was as dependent upon the others in his orher group for careful notetaking. If Johnny didn't take good notesabout the historical events during Helen Keller's lifetime, Suzywould have to backtrack and investigate again. Because studentsdidn't want to let down their fellow group members, they took copi-ous and thorough notes. They actually spent hours after school andon Saturdays at the public library working out kinks in their chro-nology. The collaborative effort was thorough, and the group mem-bers worked together to produce a whole and harmonious paper. Aseach group wrote its paper, members challenged, encouraged,chided, and cooperated with one another on such academic mattersas choice of transitional phrases, legibility of wor k, coherence ofwriting, word choice, and appropriateness of material. a result ofthe collabor any c effort, I I eceiyecl fly e excellent research paper s.

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Students had evidenced numerous skills, including functioning at alllevels of Bloom's taxonomy.

Preparing for the Program

Next, five students volunteered to be scriptwriters. Their task was totake the five papers and, after reading them, determine what wasimportant and what was extraneous. They had to synthesize the in-formation and produce a script that showed each famous person'scharacter, but they also had to decide upon what current issues todiscuss at the roundtable. Although only five students actually wrotethe script, they had plenty of adviceand criticismfrom the rest ofthe class. One day I walked into class to hear Frank declare, "Howcould you possibly forget to discuss the impact TV has had on ciii-lization? Where would Shirley Temple be without it? And who everheard of Laura Ingalls Wilder before she got her own TV show?"

In the meantime, other groups of students organized other facetsof the production. One group fashioned costumes; another le,crnedabout videotaping, another decided upon and found theme musicfor each character; another found props, located a stage, andchecked on lighting, and the last group became actors and actresses.

Finally the script was written and duplicated, and the actors andactresses learned their parts. Interestingly, the writers allowed noone but the teacher and the actors and actresses to see the script be-fore the production. They wanted everyone to he surprised.

The Great Minds Meet

On the day of the taping, the class assembled in the home economicsliving room, which had been transformed with cameras, lights,props, and music. The theme music began, and the announcer an-nounced the program and guests. The host walked onto the set andmade a few introductory remarks. Then :re introduced a six-y ear-old Shirley Temple, who mopped in, curls bobbing, skirt bouncing,licking a giant lollipop, to the tune of "Baby, Take a Bow." Afterson,e preliminary discussion with Shirley about her career as a childstar, the host introduced Pocahontas, who armed to the beat oftom-torn.,. When Pocahontas's early life had been explor ed suffi-ciently, the host introduced Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan.

Jtudents from the Helen Keller group had recognized that theyhad an additional pr oblem. Since Helen Keller was blind, deaf, and

The Sound of Music: A Harmonious Meeting of Minds 143

mute, how could a panel communicate with her? They wantedHelen to participate in the discussion, bu: they knew that the audi-ence's willing suspension of disbelief would be stretched to its limitsif Helen were able to see, hear, and speak. Therefore, this groupadded Annie Sulliy an, who spoke in a charming Irish brogue and in-terpreted for Helen, the panel, and the audience. The students whoportrayed Helen and Annie were so concerned with authenticity thatthey had gone to the local Association for the Blind and learnedsome simple sign language. Appropriately enough, the music se-lected for Helen and Annie's entrance was "I Can See Clearly Now."

Next we met Linda Ronstadt, who was dressed in the latest fash-ion and entered to one of her hit songs, "Party Girl." After somepreliminary biographical information, Linda questioned ShirleyTemple about her show business career.

What a perfect cue for Laura Ingalls Wilder! Although Laura wasnever in show bush ss her writing of the Little House books en-abled the creation of the popular TV show "Little House on thePrairie." Therefore, what better musical introduction could she havethan the theme from the show based on her writing? The moderatorquestioned Laura briefly about her family, her schooling, and thehardships her family endured as pioneers on the frontier.

The subject of hardships produced a lively discussion among thegroup. The questions of Indian cruelty and cruelty to Indians aroseand produced a number of insights about early pioneer life. Thediscussion then proceeded to societal iew s of handicaps. WhenPocahontas indicated that a child with handicaps such as Helen Kel-ler's would be isolated from the tribe and left somewhere to die. anirate Annie Sullivan pounded her clenched fist on the table and de-manded an explanation Pocahontas responded, saying that it was atenet of her tribe's religion to cast aside anyone who could not takecare of him- or herself. In addition, she said, the Creator did not ex-pect anyone who was not perfect physically to lixe. This discussioncontinued with vehement arguments lei some time as each memberof the panel contributed her oun age about treatment or mistreat-ment of others, not 01,1: the handicapped. Before anyone realized it,the cameraman was signaling that the allotted time was nearly over.

Interestingly enough, one of the most positive contributions ofthe project for the class was that the young lady who portrayedLaura Ingalls Wilder was learning-disabled with a se ere memoryproblem. Earlier in the yeas, class members had lade to do with her,but as she undertook the pal t of Laura, her group and they the en-tire class became leery supportive. While she did have some difficulty

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1'14 AdditIonal Collaborative Lem rung Activates

remembering her lines, she :,ucceeded in her tut as Lama and wonthe respect and admiration of he classmates

Playing to a Wider Audience

The culmination of this expel ience was the y less ing of the N id e o-ta ped program on the last clay of school. A number of guests wereinvited to the presentation. One of the most surprising outcomes ofthis project was that on the day c he view ing, teachers from allover the school, from a variety of disciplines, stopped by or calledand asked when it was being shown. Apparently, the stud-nts wereso enthusiastic, even the normally reticent ones, that they told any-one within eat shot about their production. As a iesult, the screeninghad a large and varied audience.

What impressed most of the adults was the wholehearted involve-ment of the class during the viewing. Students anticipat d ce, Lainparts of the script. They were eager to see Annie pound the table indisbelief about the treatment of the handicapped, and they weregenuinely enthusiat and supportive of the student who playedLaura when she ter iembered het lines. The camaraderie exhibitedthroughout this venture into group research surpasses any I haveexpel ztt-iced during my teaching career.

"That was the fit t year's effort. Over the past four years, we'vehad visits from Albert Schweitze-, P. T. Barnum, Jim Thorpe, Elea-nor Roosevelt, Marie Antoinette (kids seem to like the challenge ofdealing with the beheading of the grande dame), Gandhi, Galileo,Dolley Madison, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Charlie Chapin, BabeRuth, Michelangelo, and Rasputin. We', e had a great time andlearned , lot. We've learned to respect individual rights, to work to-gether, and to research complex topics. NA, e e managed to be cre-ative, to work the school's videotape equipment, and to find solu-tions to seemingly insurmountable problems. of all, however,we've found that yve can still be individuals anti work as a cohesivegroup to produce research papers and a videotape of our efforts

E.aluation

Evaluation is always a cliff ic tilt task for teaclict and group workcompounds that difficulty at least tenfold. Aftei numerous attemptsat wading this project, I devised the folk mg system. Each studentis graded individually on bibliography caids and note (aids. After

The Sound of Musk- A Harmonloks Meeting of Minch 145

that, the group is graded on a point system for completion of eachtask. Quality does not seem to he a problem. Because of students'desire to have an A paper, each group member criticizes the roughdraft of the paper and makes suggestions and imp ()cements. I gi\estudents a checklist to verify specific elements before they submittheir papers for grading.

In addition, as a check on shared responsibility I ask each studentto keep and submit a process journal. From time to time, I collectand check journals to determine v. hether the group is working welltogether or whether someone is having a particular problem.

Throughout the group process, students are responsible to oneanother for finding accurate information. They must take goodnotes, and they must share tasks and be responsible orkers. Ulti-mately, the project emphasizes each student talents Lather than hisor her shortcomings. Better yet, it helps students analyze, synthesize,and evaluate what is important and what isn't. Many times l'xe over-heard one student challenge . nother with "But [famous person'sname] would nem r say' that!"

Obviously students obtained information in their quest. Further-more, they had to use comprehension skills in order to apply the in-formation. In addition, students had to analyze and select specificportions of information to write their re,.eArch papci They thenhad to evaluate that information and synthesize it into a form otherthan the original text. Beyond that, the class had to use the sameskills on a higher level of abstraction in order to produce a scriptand carry out their chore.

Conclusion

Group work is not neat and tidy in practice or in grading, m ideas Orin noise ley el. It is usually chaotic and dissonant. Ann Berthoff(1981) encourages teachers to tolerate chaos w hen she says.

Nos% chaos is scary the meanings that can emerge from it,which can be discerned taking shape Isithin it, can be diswYeiedonly if students who are learning to 1, rite can learn to tolerateambiguir It is to our teacher ly ads antage that the mind doesn'tIrk,. chaos, on the other hand, si.e hase to be aleit to the fact thatmeanings can be armed at too quickly, the possibilio, of othermeanings being too abruptly foteclosed. What ue must realm.oursek es and make dramatically es ulent to out students is N% hatI A. Richards means when he calls ambiguities the hinges ofthought (pp. 70-- 7 1 )

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146 Adthttonal Collaboratu,e Learning Activities

Yes, group work is chaotic and dissonant, but it fosters thinkingand imagination. It helps us to Itinge" things together, to make as-sociations and connect ons, Certainly the dusty immortal spiritswe've conjured up in our research project help us to begin "a dark'Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles / Discordant elements,makes them cling together / In one society" to produce a harmo-niou, "Meeting of Minds." No mater how harmonious or dissonantthe groups of students invoked in this project become, I will neverforget the warning I overheard a senior give an incoming junior."Every time you hear the sound of music in her class, look out! Itmeans trouble, and boy, does it mean work!"

References

Berthoff, A. 1981 The Making of leaning Metaphois. Models. and Maxims forWriting Teachers. Montclair, : Boynton/Cook.

Wordsworth, W. 1967. The Prelude In English Roniontu 11 rite7s, ed. D. Per-kins. New York Harcourt Brace Jo% ano% ich

21 Six Sides to Learning

S. Phyllis M. Taufen, SNJMGonzaga University

Se Yen, come eleven throw the dice! No, not classroom gamblingbut cooperative learning with a six-sided box. This actiYity chal-lenges high school seniors as well as grade school learnerspushingall to see beyond the obY ions. Built on individual and group plan-ning, writing, and publishing, "Six Sides" encourages cooperativelearning, fosters creatiYity, and spotlights both the indnidual andthe group. A quick look at the what, the how, and the 1, II) of the ac-tivity will clarify this cooperative venture.

WHAT? Boxes display inj Joratie writing efforts are thefinal products of this group endeavor. ",oxeseolurful ant cleatixe,piled on library shelYes, hanging as mobiles, stacked on acti aytables, and handled daily. Boxeswritten and designed by studentgroups. Boxes describing, narrating, analyzing, brining togetherskills, cooperation, and learning.

HOW? Divide the class into groups of six students. (Moose ordi-nary, familiar topics for student collaboration. peanut utter sand-wiches, jogging shoes, locker keys, T-shirts, ice cream co es. 1 hendirect the groups to select one object and imagine what it could be,what it could do, what caused it, who needs it, and what makes it it.They poke it, stretch it, cuddle it, listen to a, figi-t fOr a. Together,they brainstorm, listing facts and fantasies.

With this prewriting exercise finished, indi i,luals Mims, the dice,rolling until eery one has a different number. ONE means desciibethe object; TWO, tell a story about the object, THREE, cortyare orcontrast it; FOUR, find its causes !or effects); FIVE, classify or di-vide a; and SIX, argue for It.

With the luck of the throw, students write one hundred lyolds 01

more on their object using the brainstorming list and the designatedform. description, narration, comparisonconnast. cause /effect. elas-

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148 Additional Collaboiatin Leaining Activities

sification, or at gument. Working indis thcs pr epal e theirfirst drafts.

Returning to the group and Is orking in twos or threes, the stu-dents rewrite and edit. When reads for the final draft, the group ap-proses all six selections end decides on the format lot publication.hand- printed in pencil. pen, or colored pens, calligraphy, N%ord-processed copy; or whatever.

A shoe box makes a stut dy base for the polished product. Throwassay the lid and cut the box in half, crosswise. Shore the two endstogether, turning the first end upside do,s n to fit inside the second.Tape. Cut paper to fit the sides, transcribe the six short selectionsinto the desired format, and paste the selections onto the box. (Ifshoe boxes are sca; ce, gather graham cracker boxes or ask the ath-letic department for 1 ol.,.yball cartons.) When finished, the cubesare pi esented to the class, critiqued, displayed on shelses and tables,hung from lights, and enjoyed for weeks on end.

Who ran resist picking up the "Six Sides of an Ice Cream Cone"and reading one author's classification section.

Ice cream cones can be classified in ses el al N Islen Itcomes to size, sou can order one scoop, two, or esen thneeif soucan keep them piled atop sour cone Size can be more thanthree scoops if you want, but take sour clog or little brotheralong to eat what hits the sidewalk.

Also, cones can be classified according to colot, and thes sat\from pecan peach to black licorice. In between sou has e a am-bow of red raspberry, orange sherbet, Nellou lemon, greenpistachio, fresh blueberry, or pt'rplc blackbert .

Look out, howeser, for an ice cream cone is also dangetousand falls into the annoying, embarrassing, of painful c lass It canrun through soul fingers, down soul arm, and make sou sticksall afternoon It can he embarrassing and driboie down sournew shirt or slacks and then plop on the car seat. Worst of all, ifeaten too fast, an ice cream cone can zoom to a spot abos loutright eye and gise you a iabbmg headache

So beware of these facts next time sou say. "Let s go get anice cream cone

Or hoc an pu k I, the cube gRing six aspects of a hake' key andread old\ once the «nnparisonlcontrast side printed these.

A locker key can be compared to mans things In size. it issmaller than most car keys. a c 'edit (aid, and a hall-eaten c how-late c hip cookie it is, hosseser, bigger than a clime, most buttons(except some designer ones), and a life sael

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Six Sides 10 Learning 149

When it comes to hardness, a locker key beats a plastic spoon,cardboard, or esen my fried hamburgers Put up against at o-mas, It loses all contests IA ith cut grass, summer tarns, opening anew can of coffee of MN' mom's perfume !t wins, though, withnegatRe smells like cooked IR et, the garbage can, and MN lunchfrom last month in the bottom of my locker.

In usefulness, however, MN locket key beats most cult ies Itcan safely hide m posters. last year's science ptoiect, gym shoes.tardy slips 1 hasen't taLtn home, and the latest note from N 04.1-klIONN ho. Part of MN' life is seciet and safe because of this tinskey.

And finally, WHY? Cooper alive learning flout ishes NN ith "SixSides." Working together to see the many facets of an object sets acommon goal and directs the process, gr ing space arid time for fre-quent interaction and leanLig. Brainstorming aud shat rug ideas en-ergizes everyone and giNt.s even the weaker student a good list forstarters. Rewriting and editing together in small groups pros idesmutual support and enables students to utilize key skills. Because thebox requires six sides, individual cunt' ibutions are important andare kept intactnot discarded or swallowed up in a group summAnd when someonc needed to make "..e box, choose the colors, orcreate that special touch cooperation and le truing continue.

Finally, building the box demands the skills, discipline, generosity,and growth inherent in cooperative learning. Seeing ideas in threedimensionsto he touched, turned, and enjoy edmakes importautboth the product and the process, the individual and the group.

Teachers adept at presenting material, forming groups, and mon-itoring progress will find "Six Sides" adaptable and suited to mai.),age levels. However, one problem spat king heated debates and yetto be resolved remains. "Who gets to take the box home Mavtthrowing dice again is the only solution!

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22 Literature across theCurriculum: The Twentv-OneBalloons in the Sixth-GradeClassroom

Donald R. BearCenter for Learning and LiteracyUniversity of NevadaReno

Debora', LohmanShoreham-Wading River Middle SchoolShoreham, New York

The Twenty-One Balloons is a fantasy that has appeal for teachers andstudents alike For teachers, especially toward the end of the schoolyear, the book's major character is an inspiration. After forty yearsas an arithmetic teacher, Professor William Waterman Shermanmakes plans to spend a year traveling in a balloon. "In this giantballoon he thought he could float around for a whole year, out oftouch with the earth, with nobody to bother him and leasing his des-tination to the winds" (p. 5).

At Shoreham-Wading Riser Middle School, the book seised as aspringboard for an integrated unit of study on world cultures andgeography. This unit also included lessons on letter and report writ-ing, notetaking, and preparing bibliographies, as well as sciencelessons on water desalinization and the principles insolsed in balloontras el. The students enjoyed the story, worked together on theircarious p,Gjects, and prepared with their parents an internationalfestival.

The 7 went -One Balloons, published in 1947 and asailable in paper-back, was a New bery Award winner and is but one of William PeneDu Bois's books. Since, as Flannery O'Connor said, a good story re-sists paraphrase, the gist of the story is provided:

In 1883, Professor Sherman leases San Francisco in the Globe. Asea gull punctures the balloon, and the professor is rescued by oneof the residents on the rumbling Pacific island of Krakatoa, locatedbetween jasa and Sumatra. The island is filled with diamond mines,

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and the twenty families who hay e been selectel to lite there are therichest in the world

The families are named after letters of the alphabet, and eachfamily has four members; for example, Mr. A, Mrs. A, and a boyand a girl named A-I and A-2. 'rile island is got erned by a GourmetConstitution, and the inhabitants follow a Restaurant Calendar.There are menty days to a month. Each day of the month, one fami-ly is responsible for preparing meals for the other residents. E ichfamily has adopted the ways of a country that begins with their let-ter Their homes are restaurants designed in the architectural styleof the particular country, and they serve the food of that country.

The A.'s run an American restaurant and serve only real Amen-can cooking You are now eating at the B 's This is a Britishchop house. The C.'s run a Chinese restaurant I-he D.'s run aDutch restaurant, the E.'s an Egyptian restaurant. . . (p 18)

The residents have designed many wonderful inventions, includ-ing a craft lifted bY twenty balloons that is to be used should the trol-cano erupt This is just what happens, and everyone boards thecraft. Most of the inhabitants drop to safety over India. Left alone,Professor Sherman ditches the craft just off the coast of England,fifteen days after he left San Francisco.

Professor Sherman is rescued and suddenly becomes a is ,JIldwidecelebrity. Es eryone wonders hots he could have made the trip insuch a short time. The book actually begins with Professor Sher-man's account of his journey before the members of the WesternAmerican Explorers' Club.

As some may know, the volcano on Krakatoa did erupt in 1883,and was heard three thousand miles away. Over one hundred thou-sand people died from the tidal waxes. PBS's "Nature" has had aspecial on Krakatoa, and scientists have been interested in hots theisland became inhabited after the explosion

In New York State, where sixth graders study world geographyand history, the possibilities for using this hook in a cote ot inte-grated curriculum are enormous, and over the past three yea's wehate developed a number of cooperative learning actixines that in-voke small-group presentations, team teaching, and parents.

The unit is designed to last any where horn six to nine weeks. Be-fore the unit begins we look at the district's curl it ula to see hots thevarious content goals and language arts objectit es can be incorporat-ed There arc three basic components to this unit. The first compo-nent imolyes listening tomprehens.on and notetaking amities Its()

The "Tent: -One Balloons m the Sixth -Glade Clasc mom 153

or three times a week The second and thud components are proj-ects in which students focus on research skills and expositors witt-ing The projects inyolye small-group %soi k sessions several times aweek The listening comprehension and notetaking actnines and theprojects are run c,mcurrently because as students lead .he book theydeselop ideas for different projects. For the sake of conyemence inexposition, howeser, the three strands :sill be discussed separately inthe following sections.

Listening Comprehension and Notetaking

The first four chapters of The Twent)-One Balloons are read to thestudents using a Directed Listening-Thinking Actnity (DL-TA) for-mat (Stauffer !975). Prior to each reading session, the teacher marksappropriate stopping points where the students :yin be asked tomake predictions about what they think will happen next. At eachstopping point, students' predictions are recorded on the board oron an overhead-projector transparency. As the reading progresses,the accuracy of th predictions is tested.

In addition to the DL-TA, students take notes while they listen,and the notes are shared at the end of each session. During the first,everal sessions, the teacher melds the students' notes and asks one:student to serve as a secretary The secretary organizes the notesfrom the board and reproduces them in time for the next class Atthe next class. students reyiew the notes and check them for ac-curacy before the reading begins.

After the teacher has modeled the DE-1 A and notetakmg proce-dures for a fens weeks. both actnities are turned user to pairs of stu-dents Usually, students choose their own partners, so there are twopairs of students responsible for snaring each chapter with the class.Each team does either the DL-TA or the notetaking actiyity with oneof the latter six chapters of The Twenh-One Balloons. In a class oftwenty-four students, each student can be inyolyed in one of the ac-tiYities In larger classes, groups of three hay e worked together suc-cessfully. The adyantages of working in pans, fumes er, are ()hymns.The students help each other through a (Mehl] reading of the text.and in the DL-TA they support each other in (Ludy mg the inferen-tial -type questions they ask the class.

l'he pairs doing the Ill,-TAS 1 di need approximately threetwenty-minute Feriods to read each of the six chapters to the class.1 he following insti uctions are gm. en to these students. who arc givena week to prepare their presentations.

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154 Additional Collaborative Learing Activities

1. Read the chapter together and find good stopping points.These are places where you can ask the class w hat they thinkwill happen next.

2. Write questions for each stopping point.3. Decide what parts each of you will read, and practice your

reading.4. Meet with me to discuss your work.

5. Make your presentation.6. Meet witn me for an evaluation.

Students are evaluated on how vveil-organized they were, thequality of their stopping points, their tact and politeness, and the de-gree of probingthat is, the degree to w hich the) followed up onstudent predictions. (A similar procedure can be used to teach re-quited basal stories. See Bear and Invernizzi 1984 for more detailson organizing and evaluating student-directed reading groups.)

The instructions for toe teams of notetakers are quitc simple.

1. Read the chapter together and list the important points in anoutlinc form.

2. Meet with me to share your notes.

3. Lead the class in a notetaking session following each day's read-ing.

4. Revise your notes to take into account additions suggested bythe class.

5. Duplicate and distribute the notes before the next session.6. Meet with me for an evaluation

The teams are evaluated on the basis of the accuracy, clarity. andorganization of their notes, their willingness to incorporate otherstudents' suggestions, and thei, promptness in disolbuting thenotes.

The First Round of Projects

As the reader may recall, the book begins with Professor Sherman'slecture to the Explorers Club about his trip. He goes on at soniclength describing his craft and his preparation for the trip. In addi-tion, some of the most famous balloonists create fantastic exhibitionsin his honor. In the course of discussing the first four chapters, stu-dents often raise factual-type questions such as the following.

The Twenty-One Balloons in the Sixth-Grade Class?oons 155

How wide is the United States?

How long does it take to travel across country by train;How many miles per day can a balloon travel?Who was president of the United States in 1883?What is ballast?

How can salt water be turned into drinking water?Where is Krakatoa?

Quite informally, the teacher asks students to find answers to thesequestions and to report back to the class the next day.

After these first few questions are answered, work groups are cre-ated to research broader topics. Usually there are three or fourgroups studying volcanoes and three groups studying balloon tray el.Occasionally thee is a group of students interested in inventions,these students read some of Du Bois's other works and study RubeGoldberg inventions. All of the groups work together, meet on aregular basis to do library research, write reports, and make grouppresentations. The teacher circulates among the groups and offersassistance as it is needed. Working together in groups is a new expe-rience for many students, and we see this first round of projects ashelpful in building a cooperative spirit in our class. Two to threeweeks are allowed for preparation and presentations. Since studentsare required to develop bibliographies, the teacher presents separatelessons on how to do so.

Piesentations are evaluated by the entire class. At Ur st, the evalua-tion, simply consist of students saying what they liked about a pre-sentation. This remains the first step, but gradually, as a level oftrust is developed, the presenters are asked to reflect on how theycould have improved their presentation, and then their classmatesmake suggestions. Without fail, other groups pick up on these sug-gestions. Occasionally, since personal letter writing is also part of thesixth-grade curriculum, students have been asked to write letters tothe groups that commented on their presentations.

The Second Round of Projects

The students' DL-TA presentations and notetaking presentationstake the class to the point in The T wents-One Balloons where theGourmet Constitution is described. When students arc asked whatthe next round of projects should be, without fail they suggei.t that

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156 Additional Collaborative Learning Ac:ivities

each student should choose a letter of the alphabet and then re-search that country. Students work in pails and dray. a letter Out ofa hat. When the unit is team-taught, the alphabet is di\ ided in halfand students choose a letter.

Our study of world geogiaphy is now under way. As a class, webrainotorm on each letter and suggest possibilities for the pairs toconsider. Here some guidance is necessary. Unlike Du Bois. we donot allow A to represent the United States. It is not unusual for stu-dents to confuse states with countries (last year a student suggestedKansas for the letter C). Pairs settle on a country and place a flag ontheir country on the world map. Typically. each pair is responsiblefor creating a tras el brochure for their country. Students contactlocal travel agencies for brochures. (We'Ye learned to call the agen-cies in advance of tl. assignment to warn them of the upcoming del-uge. In some instances, as in the case of Lebanon. travel agencies areunable to offer much assistance.) After a lesson on holy to write abusiness letter, students write their country's embassy in New Yorkfor more information.

Finally, an international lunch is scheduled. Each pair brings adish, and parents are in\ ited to join the classes in the cafeteria for aninternational feast. Students wear name dress, and each pair ispen a moment front of the group to introduce their country anddish. This year, a local iestaurant donated some extra food, papergoods, and a tank of helium for a balloon launch. Students attachedletters to their balloons asking anyone w ho found the balloons towrite back and let us know, where and when the balloons were re-ti le\ ed. A strong southwesterly wind took se\ erai balloons twentymiles to Connecticut in just forty -fire minutes. In other years, theballoons hint: gotten only as far as the local elementary school. Onthe average, six out of forty balloons are I-colored.

Conclusion

Group woik is an impoi taut pal t of this unit of study At the begin-ning, groups were infoimal and established foi short durations. Inprecious grades, students may not have had opportunities to worktogether, and it may i equii e a feu assignments befoie they taketheir work seliously. Ui oups become pi oductis e when the studentssee that they are in charge, that their peels will look to them foi ad-siceind that they are iesponsible foi leading the rest of the class.We prefer to teat h with a -little t,' and not a "big C, we prefer notto tell our students what to do. but lathe" to facilitate then learning.

1 4

The Twenty-One Balloons in the Sixth-Grade Classtoom 157

References

Bear, D. R., and NI Ins enui. 1984. Student Dire( ted Reading (groups.journal of Reading 28 (December): 248-52

Du Bois, W. P. 1947. The Twenty-One Ballootts New York: VikingStauffer, R G. 1975. DIrcettng the Reading-Thinking Proress. Ness York

Harper and Row

4 ",

AINIMMIVNIIIMM!IMIM

23 Scriptwriting in Small Groups

Carole CoxLouisiana State University

Overhtard as three third-grade boys biainstoimed ideas for a scriptfor a videotape production:

We can do any thing we want with this Ideo machine. Like God-zilla's Fire. Like on that Dr. Pepper commercial and he was burn-ing everything up and they gave him a Dr Pepper. Fire all civetthe place. Maybe another planet. We need to make muscles andbuildings and a little cable car that flies And like this could be atime capsule. We need popsicle sticks. And a trap for Godzilla'sfeet. No trap! Godzilla's trying to save us from creatures fromspace We need to make a background. You know how back-grounds move and they change things electronically? And / couldget my hamster to talk and Godzzlla could save him! Yeah!

Students like these, who create original scripts small groups fora drama or media production about school subjects, events, liter-ature, or just something they like (such as Godzilla), have a uniqueopportunity to use language and learn cooperatively. One approachto scriptwriting in small groups that I have found effective from pri-mary through middle school begins with a general topic selected 1);the whole class. The topic is then discussed, debated, elaborated on,organized, explained, w ritten about in separate parts in smallgroups, and finally put together for production by the whole class.The real payoff in cooperative learning is in the class's communica-tion of their original ideas to an audience. These ideas have been re-vised and refintd through small-group interaction, as the studentsliterally acted on what they knew and brought their words and ideasin the script to life by performing or producing their ow n play ormedia production.

The Scriptwriting Process

1. Selecting a tope. Students ale constantly in the process of gener-ating topics that can be v,ritten about, di amatized, or produced in

159

17J

160 Additional Collaborative Lew lung .letivities

media for m. Examples include books that are read aloud thewhole class, social studies or science study, current ey ems, popularfilms, other media events, and learning the use of a new medium.The suggestion to dramatize, film, or videotape these topics maycome from the teacher after obserNing students spontaneously ,ak-ing on characters. playing roles together, and creating their own im-provised drama.

2. Extending the response to the topic through talking and writing.:ounger children can dictate a group story that can be recorded as alanguage experience, or they can yy Le their oys n stories or tell themto you. Older students may note -dens and extend these throughpersonal writing.

3. Sharing stones. At some point. hildren may want to share whatthey have yyritten with you, with the other meml. .s of a smallgroup, or with the whole class. These sharings can become a focalpoint for discussing and extending ideas into scriptable form.

4. Forming groups. After sharing, students will hu-e reasons to be-come connected in small groups and will suggest their oti n c imbina-tions. I have always found it more effective to let «minion interests,ideas, or images (such us Godzilla) override more Rath ran basesfor forming groups such as ability or compatibility.

5. Brainstoi mifq: ideas. After grouping, alloys a period for small-group discussions of the focal idea first then periodic discussionswith the whole class to point out a general direcoon for the script tofollow.

6. Blocking the script. One way to organize ideas ai long the wholeclass is to )1.ssify them under the following types of 'ieadings on theboard e on a ge wa11 chart or mei head 1;rojet or: Story Idea,Synopsis, Plot, Setting, Characters, Action, Fy mts, Secinence

7. Recording 'onus. One student can record the group s ideas foreach heading. The group can then put the ideas on a illetin boardfur the whole class R) use as a framewoik for future discussions andwriting. Studen.s can make notes and share ideas on this publicdraft.

8. Dividing the sequence of eventslactions into numbeied arts. .'_ shift ingroups may talc place here accoi ding to their eyoking interests andability to work together cooperanyely and moductiyely..\t this point'my are in charge and will decide these things themselves if the script

is developing well and still holding their interest.

Se, iptwilting in Small Groups 161

9. Wrning acts in small poops and 0,1ding dialogue This stage willcover an extended period of time until each group has a workingdraft they can share. Man) skills can be introduced of reinforcedhere, such as ordering and sequencing el ems and actions, writingdialogue, using quotation marks, wliting nai l ation and noting stagedirections or shooting notes.

10. Coming together as a whole class to shale wotten acts Discuss prog-ress here, as well as trmsitions bet,seen acts (This can be clone pe-riodically during the w:inng period.)

11. Revise the acts in small groups. The groups can begin to workwith others to create transitions between acts; that is, from Act I toAct 2, Act 2 to Act 3, etc.

12. Reviewing and lensing the sci/pt as a poup. Copies of the workingscripts should he axail ihle so that all can read and respond to themduring periods of kraing. All of the acts can be kept in a singlefolder so that students will hale access to them as they get new ideas.

13. Synthesizing the final sc pt. One w raking script will finall)emerge, but changes will natural!), occur as Noir begin to mount theplay or media production. In the end, the sc ript is a Yuepi int lotthe play or media production, not the prodiq tion Itself

Integrating the Curriculum: The Tale of an Unfair Lection

A play composed 131, a fourth- and f:f i1, -grade combination (lassworking in small groups was a natural outgrowth of a xariet of in-terests that were oigarized, clarified, and connimmeated to othersthrough dramatization. The subject is an example of how natural itis to integrate the curriculum through writing and drama

I had read aloud a book written IJI in, lathe!, Coi don D Slur-ref fs, who is pi imaril) a write' of adult historical nox els of the West.but who has also written rnaux historical nox els of pox els with aWestern setting for children and xoung adults (OA 195(11. the stu-dents were excited about Flu ,111,fin of the !taunted Aline and espe-cial!) liked the thrcc main chat actei s, of ten speculating that the gillin the stop was lc:AIN, me I noticed that `,c) were spontaneouslyplax n)g Gan, Tuck, and Sue, and I also somewhat un«nn-fo, ,ably reahred that S;_e began to manifest mannerisms I knew,were lin 05511 flit sc that acteis ako began to appeal in the students'writing, and it seemed oils nanual at this point to isiggest sc qh-wliting in of del to gam/c these impi us isational (h ...4(T ,1,( tc hes

162 Adthtional Collaborative Learning Activitio

into dramatic form. We began, then, wit!, three rri chat acters. Butwe needed a setting, a plot, and a lot of action.

The students were doing one Elementary Science Studies unitcalled "Where is the Moon Tonight;" and another unit called "Budsand Twigs." As a result, the play's setting bet ame another planetpeopled by two races: the Plant People and the H .manoids. Theconflict in the play came from another topical interesta social stud-ies unit on elections during a presidential election N. ear. The playbegan to take form when the students titled it The Tale of an UnfauElection and went through the steps of scriptwriting in small groupsalready described.

Here is the plot of The Tale of an Unfair Election written as promo-tional publicity for the play:

An election takes place on the planet -Lot The election has beenrigged by the Humanoid presidential candidate, Taylor. TheHumanoids are invaders from a dye 2; planet and h.:1%e enslavedthe native Plant People. Trailing Arbutus. the other presid.2nualcandidate, sends his vice-presidential candidate, Leaf, to earthfor help to restore free elections for Plants and Humanoidsalike.

Leaf meets the Metzenberg children, Gary, Tuck, and Sue, whotake him to their father, a famous space scientist 1,sho is going ona scientific expedition to Zot. He takes Leaf along and promisesto help The children stowaway on the sj tceship U.S.S. Moon-beam and join their father for many adventures on Zot.

This play was performed in the round on the floor of the gym.The audience sat in a circle of chairs around the action. Spaces wereleft at intervals in thf- circle for entrances and exits, and the childrenwaited behind screens outside the circle. To create an effect of deepspace, the room was dark except for spotlights on the action. Audi-en( imokement was invited (luring scenes with political Tallies andrevolt: the audience became part of the crowd and the drama itself.

'fhe Individual and the Small Group: "Jan Andrews is Trailing Ar-butus!"

While The Tale of an 1'n /air Election s% as considered a success `orCY eryone, one student in particuLi appeared to benefit. Jan was theshyest child in the class and often struggled to look -people in the e). ewhen she spoke. She was <.00 large for her age, a prokaerr that com-pounded her shy ness and her desire to remain unnoticed. I neverasked Jan to speak or share, and she never volunteei ed.

Scrzphontmg m Small Groups 163

Jan had become extremely imohed with her small group, how-ever, and when we cast the play with yolunteers, Jan asked to playthe important role of the presidential candidate of the Plant People,Trailing Arbutus. I thin': we were all surprised and not at all pre-pared for the transformation that took place when Jan donnect theimperial-looking robes of the leader of the Plant People, a long andflowing hooded affair cox ered with plastic leases attached with < <fe-

ty pins. She suddenly stood straighter, to the full ads antage of herlarger size. And as she gripped her robe and swished it about foremphasis, a voice emerged from inside the hood that none of us hadever heard before. I: was similar to the voice of the quiet and verydignified young Jan, but it had a new edge of authority and solume.As they would say in the movies, "Jan Andrews is Trailing Arbutus!"

Jan outdid herself in this role and came to relish all drama-relatedexperiences. The other children recognized her special talent andthe transformation that took place when she worked on a script orput on a costume. For Jan, composing a play in the relatise safety ofa small group and then acting on it in the relatne safety of a char-acter constituted the special way that she found her ow n Yoiceonethat was barely audible during whole-class actisities but ',mg forthstrong and clear when she created cm played a role.

Other Dramatic Modes ane. Organizational Patterns for Small-Group Scriptwriting

In addition to sc.riptwriting for plays, there are se\ .:ral other waysstudents may practice cooperative leas nintr in small groups and per-haps find the best mode of expression for their own spices. Film-making is almost always a collaboratne effort of many inch\ 'duals,and students who make films myariably work in small groups. Kindergartners can create draw-on films in which they work together toproduce a segment of film that eyentually becomes a part of a com-plete film for the whole class. First and se and graders can use aSliper 8 camera to plan and animate parts of a film produced by theIN hole class. By third and fourth grade, students can effectnely workin small groups to produce shot t films of their own (Cox 1985). Andby middle school, students can make indiyalual films (althot myexperience has been that students prefer to work in small groups,especially those groups formed path for social easons). Esen withindividual filmmaking, how es el, the students will help each otherduring production of the films, with each seising as directoi;pro

Icy

164 Additional Collaborative Learn:rig Activities

ducer for his or her on film and as camerapet sonianimator'techni-cian/actor, etc. for the others' films (Cox 1984).

Video producuors are less time-consuming than filmmaking sincestudents may plan, script. film, and see the results of then work im-mediately. These productions are most effectively done in smallgroups since the medium lends itself to stringing many Nignettes to-gether in a teleYision commercial, a news program, or a documen-tary. The portability of the equipment also facilitates this kind ofproduction. The three third-grade boys described at the beginnin6of this paper eventually ch.,' produce a script featuring Godzilla as amain character. Their piece was combined with other vignettes toproduce a TV commercial.

Other dramatic modes that lend themselves to students workingcooperatiYely in small scriptwriting groups include readers theatre,puppetry, and the adaptation of literature to play production (Sloyer1982).

What is most important in the end is not that a play or film orsideotape is in ocluced. It is that students like Jan Andrews find anduse their on voices t oagh scriptwriting and performing as they

tristorm, share, N% rite, revise, and finally act on their own ideas inthe fertile and relatively safe environment of a smull group of otherstudents v.ho are also seeking to find and use their own voices.

References

Cox, C 1). 1984. Shooting fin jock ',1,ard. A Documentan on BeginningFilmmakers E 're:A Journal 73 (Januarv) 4(5-50.

1985 Filmmaking as a Composing Process Language Arts 62 60-691986 Gordon D. Shn tells. An Intenie. +ith a kVesttrn kVilt :r Eng-

lish Journal 75 (April). 40-48.Shnreffs, G. D. 1965 The AlWer of Hu Haunted we Ne, Yoi k Ss holastic

Book Services.Shiver, S 1982 Reader, I &wire Stoll Dr,onatization rrt thr Uas,loom L mina,

III National Council of "I eat hers of Fnglish

7moristr4.

Contributors

Corrine Alonso is cooldinator of the TION (Michigaio School Th,oict's Pro-gram for Accelerated and ('realise Education lot gifted and talented stu-dents Prior to this position she spent eighteen }eats teaching French,Spanish, and English at Troy High School Ms Alenso also sersed asadjunct teacher from Ss acuse Unrs ersity and taught the um' ersity'sfteshman English program at Troy High, allowing students to gain dualcredit In 1980 she was awarded a PAGE Scholarship from the English-Speaking Union, which allowed her to tour and studs British schools. Ms.Alonso is currently enrolled in a le Idling the Talented program forgraduate :tridents at the Uniseisas of Connecticut

Donald R. Bear is an associate professor with the Center fot Learning andLiteral, in the College of Education. Unneisity of NesadaReno His re-search has centered on the Snchron). between stages of reading, wilting,and spelling deselopment Specifically, 1-e has examined the relationshipsbetween reading and writing fleocs and orthographic awareness. Os etthe past year, Dr Bear has concentrated on adult !acmes proficienty andsecondary, reading He directs a reading clinic for adults and is writing amanual lot teachers integrating language experience actisities and oralhistory techniques in teaching adults

E. Kathleen Booher teat hes at Old Dominion 1:1111ersaN HI Norfolk, \ ir-gtnia She has taught language arts and social studies iu middle school,and English and minposulon in high school and college She has alsoworked as a trainer f ot the New ,verses Writing Pioject at Rutgers Um-sersits In 1979, she won an Engltsh Juri,a/ Writing Award tot her mo-de, "Middle School Melanc holia In addition, sue cundueis summerwriting project institutes and works as a K-12 consultant to school sys-tems She serses on the exec Ouse boat d of Peninsula Vs tirets. an enthusi-astic Mic Ingan-ba ,ed group of tea( het- cruets

Jeffrey S. Copeland, a formet high school Iniguage at is teat her. is cur-tet,t1s an assistant plot( ssoi of English education at the Uniseisits ofNorthern lossa Ile is acme in Inc-sewing workshops and inset site train-ing sessions for language at is teat frets In addition to his )(mina! at tides,he has edited and designed four poctrs texts H ( and 6tggles. (dea-NIP aPel Btwroll and Bubble 6um, and The Shiwnng Star Paths A Whol-°Ars

Carole Cox is an associate professor of c in in (1111111 .111(1 Hoax tic lion at Loui-siana Slat( rinsci sits Ind has taught elemental% school and duet ted

1(35

166 Cont?Ibutins

drama programs for elementars and linden:. school students In additionto Journal at odes and book chaptets, she has t (fiends published a wIlegemethods text, Teaching Language .-1//s, and is editing a book on film in theclassroom for NOTE She makes presentations tegularls at E con-sermons Dr Cox's wrrent research Interests are students' responses toliterature and film

Rex Easley is an assistant professor of English in the Uniseisits College ofthe Unkersitt of Cincinnati In addition to teat lung composition and(realise %%ruing courses, he is presenth participating in a department-sponsored stuck of computer use in deselopmental %smiting courses Hehas also published fiction in Kausa.s Quarteril and elsess here

Adele Fiderer is a helping teacher in English for Scarsdale Public Schools inNess York She ssorks as a language ac is consultant K-5 and also teachesIA flung and reading to a fifth-grade Her chapter in this book ssasdes elcped through reseatch in her (Jun classroom. For the past fomtears she has coordinated a teacher-researcher program for her schooldistrict's teacher center Ms. Fiderer has made presentations at con-ferences of NCTE. the Ness York State Department of Education. andthe Metropolitan Schools Studs C01111(11 of teachers College, Columbia1:111Nersit. Cut tenth a doctoral studen, in Teachers College. she is strit-mg a dissertation on teacher-researchers

Margaret Fleming is an associate professor of English and of language.reading. and culture at the Unisei.,it, of Arizona. She is daec.tor of Eng-lish education and codirector of the Southern Ar uona Vsriting P 'jest.She has taught high school English and is utter' numerous <nudes forEngksh Journal. A itzona English Bulletin, and other professional journals.For sesen tears Dr. Fleming also sersed as editor of A IZOIla Engksh Bai-lout "1-%%o books. both coauthored ssith graduate-student colleagues, areTeaching the Epu and Portrait% Bioglaph and Autobiopaph) in the Serondar)School

Marie Foley is a lecturer in the Department of Enf,lish at the Unker sits ofCalifornia, Santa Bat bar a, %%here she teach( , freshman composition andadsanced composition. She has also taught Liighsh at the high school andeommunits college les els In addition to helping Inaugurate and editWriter,' Blot, a campus publication of IA inning student essass, she hasisntten on ads am ed «imposaion issues and on the lice- paragraph essas1)1 holes is present's reseals lung approaches to the tea( lung of form

C.rol Gilles is a doctoral student in leading at th Unkei its of MissourShe has taught sixth glade, named teachers n, %%in Nith special needsstudents. and ssot ked a3 a learning disabilities teachr, for grades 7-9She is eurtenth president of the stud Missouri (halite' of 1 ember sApphing Whole Language \11-14 She makes presentations iegulaiIsat NCI E «ins ent ions and al f thine conferences

Jeff Golub teat lies English. speech winnititue anon. and pitcollege ssunngclasses at Shotectest f light School in Seattle. \Aashington lie has taught

1 r

Contributors '6

at several othet Washington high schools and juniot high ,5( hook at,d ss asthe chair of the English Delia' tment at Mattson junto' High Sc hoof inKent. Washington Di Golub has spoken at ,es ei al NCI E and SpeechCommunication Association conferences mound the «mum and hasconducted communisation, skills isutkshops fin both school distt it's andbusinesses His %sot k s%ith NCTE, includes seeing as coeditol of the"Junior High/Middle School 'Idea Factors' column in English Joatnal.member of the Secondary Section Steel tog Committee and the Commis-sion on the English Curriculum, and, cull-ends. edam of the Computersin the Classroom- column in English JI,ur Nal DI Colub is the edam ofanother Classroom Prat tic es book. I r //, toes to Promoir (laical Among.and the author of marts articles oil speech (minium( ation and highschool teaching

Dana Herreman is a teacher of Arnelican literature, composition. and de-bate in the Nessark Cits Schools in Nessark. Ohio, 1%hele she has taughtfor tsetse sears. She has published a number articles in state publica-nons as sell as in NCTE's NOTES Plms. Four sears ago she pat ucipatedin the Nessark Excellence in Writing Project and studied the %siltingprocess ssIth Dan Kith), at the Um% ersits of Illinois. As a part of hetschool district's curriculum deselopment «mmuttee, she directs a %sluingproject for teachers She is a member of doer NCI E affiliates andsersed on the steering committee for the 1 1)87 Ohio Council of 1 cachetsof EnglishTanguage Arts conference. "Celelmating the 1 eat her

John Kendall teaches English at the Uppet School of Rutgers PiepatatotsSchool He has sensed on the executise boatel of the N. s% )ernes Councilof Teachers of English, has edited then nes.slc tier. POC US, and hascochaired a state eating conference at Lakeisood, Ness lases Mr Ken-dall has taught %%ruing isorkshops at local -,ate, and national Englishconferences He has had tsso children's no-kids published. and has sutteetwo other novels for s oung adults.

Kirsten Barfod Levinsohn taught second grade for foul seals at RingersPreparators School in Somerset, Ness Jensen She re( en ed het roaster'sdegree in eiementars earls childhood edllt atm!) at Rutgets 1:1111 ei sitsNess 131unsssicl.. Ness jersey. and het bachelot s degree at Xilliarns Col-lege in Wilhamstosin. Massachusetts she is (uttrnth tracking preschoolin Ann Arbor, Michigan

Deborah Lohman has taught sixth grade fin the last eight seats ut theShoreham -'t aciing Riser Middle School ill Shoreham. Ness N (irk I'te-siousls she s% as educational coo:dumb.] of Slec p If ()Hos% Restorations.Westchester. Ness N ork Het mules; 111 mu:paled cult-tritium and wl-iaboranse learning isas piqued hs a sear %sot king HI the British InfantSchools Ms Lohman has recruits «unlit( lc cl a National Science Found&not. c4ant nuegidung St truce Into ,d1 arras of the elemental-% c urtu u-lum

Earl D. Lomax i< an assistant pub snot of English at Das id I ipscomb Col-lege in Nashsile, Irnlessee, is heir he also chic( ts the program in I ng-

168 Contributws

hsh education He taught at the Enuoi high and high school les cis helm(purs :mg the Ph D. in English «Inca:ion at the L nis en sits of NfissouriHe is acme in both the Nashs rile and Tennessee Council of 1 eat hers ofEnglish and is a frequent book res lesser for 1 he AL IN Re t tezi DI Lomaxhas been a program participant at annual meetings of the Confeience onEnglish Education and NOTE. He ss as ass arded a laculis teseauh grantfor the summer of 1988 to %sulk on a book dealing %s oh \ming adult literattire.

Virginia McCormick teaches English at William kilt n High School. Allen-tossn, PennssIsama She has taught grades K-12 Ms McCormick is theauthor of a te,.cher s manual for a se«muais %swing text and has seisedas an edam and corsultant fen numerous educational publishers A fie-quent contributor to NCTE publications. Ms McCormick has also had m-ucks published in Education Beek and Du Niu England Journal ol Medi-cine. She makes presentations regularly at NC-I E consentions. itsMcCormick ss as named one of the outstanding setundars educators uiAmerica in 19-5 and receised the Penns\ Is allla limos atis e IeachingAss ard in 1984.

G. Douglas Meyers is an associate professor in the Depaitment of English atthe Cols ersus of I etas at El Paso He has published numerous articles

a riling and %% ruing pedagcigx. aicluding the areas of etpositors, tec h-nical, and business ss ruing Meseis duects the West Iexas WritingPt °lett, and in 1986 is as ass arded the Outstanding Cmsei sits EnglishTeacher ass ard hs the local NC FE affiliate. the Paso del Norte Council ofleachers of English.

Tom Morton teaches English at Pit of Wales Se«mdais 'school In Vancousen, British Columbia, and tiains teachers in cooptiatise leaningthroughout the pros nice Some of his \soil, appears in ,Stinauinig- Cooly 7-atn c learning The 1987 Handboi,k,1n Das id and Roger Johnson, and inWilliam Glasser's Lcniool Theo n tn the (1(1,$) nom Ile also ss rote Look AgainThe Process of pi -paw. and DivIonination and Mod Times Then and ,Lou

Muriel Ridland is a lectutei in the «nuposaum program of the English De-partment at the Unnersits ma. Santa Bat hai a She has taughtcomposition and literature Oleic and at Califoi ma State Linstrsits, LosAngeles Het (tepees %%tie taken at the Umsersits of Ness 1..aiand, Can-terbui s College She. coll,dmnated ssith John Rolland in %%ruing .1nd SusWhat He 1, The Lqf of a Spc'oal (Add Rulland re«mds le( tined to stu-dents naming to become teacheis of faigh,h at otsos Emand l IMCISII%in Budapest, disc ussing e In rent composition tea( hung in the UnitedSlates

Barbara Schoen is an associate piofessin of language ants at the Stan. Unlscrstts of Ness 1 irk. College at Puy Lase. and is dire( tot of the «illege'sstilling pi ()gram In addition to IRA %sod. at SI NY, Di Schoen has pub-lished tr,o nos {vs. as ssell slim( slut to s and armies botl populat andacademic

Contubutcas 169

Caryl Klein Sills is an assistant professor of English and dilutor of writingat Monmouth College in West Long Branch. Ness jersey She has pre-sented papers on ssruing theory, at conferences sponsored by NC I L andthe New Jersey College English Aso iation, and she has des eloped writ-ing across the curriculum workshops for seseral Ness Jersey corteges Di.Sills is a founding member of Ness jet ses Computer Users in Educationand has recent!: published al tides on the effects of computer-assisted's flung inset uction on freshman writer s Cun emits , she is studs mg pairedsections of a freshman composition course to compare and ey <dilate tradi-tional ar-; computer -assisted methods of w nung instruction

Mary K. Simpson-Esper teaches sesenth -grade language at ts. She has hadsesenteen sears of classroom experience teaching for the Prince WilliamCounts Public Schools in Woodbridge, Virginia In 1985, she became ateacher/consultant with the Northern Vu gaud \\-flung Project at GeorgeMason University She has had articles published in seseral professionalJournals, including Virginia Juarnal of Educatun Journal of Reading, andLanguage Arts

S. Phyllis M. Taufen, SNJM, is an assistant profess rr of English at GonzagaUnhersity, Spokane, Washington. where she tea hes English compositionand business communication for the School of Business. She has directedthe Univer sit) Writing Lab and is coordinator of Lcaser DIY ision EnglishNominated for Teacher-of-the-Year in 1985, shf is widely known in theNorthwest for her workshops for educators ant business leaders. She isacusely involved in the Washington State Counci of Teachers of English.the Inland Northwest Council of Teachers of E rglish, and the NationalWriting Project

Edgar H. (Herb) Thompson is an assistant professor of educat, ,o and dr, cc-tor of -lementars education at Emotes & Henn C illege. Emory, Vii} tnta.He has pubIrshed at tides in seseral journals. nu hiding L,tglAh fournot,English Evteation. and NOTES Pius

Sharon E. Tsujimoto most recentl: taught at a N'ontesso:. elementaryschool, grades 1-3 She has also taught glades 2 at pi irate and publicschool; in Hawaii Ms. 1 sujimoto s.orked as a part-tune reacher forChapter I re .cling plug' r.,r for a number of sears and also taught firstgrade a. a prRate school Neu York (,its.

Marc VanDover is a secondary learning disabiline, tea( het at jet f el sonjunior high to Columbia Missouri He has taugf t elenintar.-age stu-dents with helm% lot nrobm, ,n a self-«intained s;!tting Mr X anDoseihas made presentations at meetings of lea( hers ppl. mg X\ hole Language and the Missouri IRA, and at local district in,erYK e piograms

Richard Whitworth 1, a professor of Engh,h at Bali St fie Unicrsitr,he tc aches methods in English courses In 1987, I anibda Iota lau sc-leacd him as one of four outstandiim professors s of -,nglish, also inhe recessed the Stembet k Researt It Institute's utstanding English

170 Coralibulois

reacher ward. During his career, 1)r Whimorth taught language at ts atall les elselementars , junior high, middle school and high school Hisarticles has e appeared in English Journal. Charing Home. Learning, andJournal of Secondan Educatior He is cut rentl, ins estigating the potentialof laser disc in truction in the teaching of English

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH1111 KENYON ROAD, URBANA, ILLINOIS 61801

ISBN. 0-8141-1753-8

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